


The Green Sun Project

by GothMoth



Series: May's Phantastical Callings [28]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Broken Bones, Cold Danny, Danny Has No Sense Of Self Preservation And Is A Clumsy Fool, Family, Fusion, Gen, Ghost Zone Core! AU, Ghost Zone Core!Danny, Overprotective! Danny, Rewrite, Science, Sentient Core, The Fenton's A Plus Parenting, The G.I.W. Fucking Shit Up For Everyone Again, ghost hunger
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24014407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: The core of the ghost zone used to just be a place, an energy from which all ectoplasm came. But now it had a personality, a person, a home: Danny.
Series: May's Phantastical Callings [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1405315
Comments: 150
Kudos: 456





	1. Prologue: A Star Is Forged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 4: Science

Danny looks over his mom’s shoulder as she grumbles over some papers and test results. Before she looks up to Jack, “everything looks alright and I’m sure we have enough”. 

Jack smiles and energetically rushes over to grab at a beaker filled with white ectoplasm, glowing almost painfully bright. Danny quirks an eyebrow, “is that the purified Zone core, or whatever, ectoplasm you guys have been going off about?”. Jack nods animatedly, “right you are, Danny-boy! With this we should finally be able to make a true Ghost Zone Core!”. Maddie nods, “syphoning the purest cleanest ectoplasm right from the heart of the Ghost Zone should be enough to make a free-form Core of the Ghost Zone”. 

Jack rushes off and puts the beaker inside the protected electrified observation cell, “finally able to have a proper Ghost Zone anchor to the real world! That way everything will be stable and the ghosties won’t all be violent monsters!”. 

Most people had never really seen a ghost before but the reports of them attacking people were not in short supply. Not too mention all the scare stories about how if one world dies, so does the other. Which was the entire reason for this project of his parents. ‘ _Because, apparently, solidifying the core of the Zone, or whatever, into an actual Ghost Core, would fix the issues with the Zone. Though I’ve got no clue how they’re going to keep the Core supported without it being in the Zone or in a ghost....eh whatever, their problem not mine. It’s not like I’ll actually live long enough for the Zone collapse, or whatever. What with my parents crap exploding all the time_ ’. Danny shakes his head, ‘ _it’s almost like they don’t really care about safety at all_ ’. 

Danny blinks a bit, caught off guard by the containment cell sparking and zapping a ton of green lightning at the beaker. Maddie shouts from the computer, “Jack dear! It’s working! It’s actually forming!”. Jack bounces excitedly in front of the cell, while Danny tilts his head and watches; slightly further away. 

Suddenly there’s is a near blinding flash or ring of light that expands out from the beaker before collapsing in. A brightly glowing white orb floating in its place. ‘ _Wow...it’s really pretty. Like a mini star..._ ’. Danny walks up and puts his hand on the cell glass, breathing out, “wow”. 

Danny continues staring at it while his parents hug and congratulate each other. 


	2. To Push Past The Limitations Of Artificiality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 4: Science

Danny’s laying in bed, “kinda weird that It’s right below me”. It had been three days and his parents had pretty well confined themselves to the lab. It was actually a bit disturbing, especially because they seemed to have almost malicious glints in their eyes whenever they were looking at the Zone Core. Danny shivers, ‘ _if they haven’t already earned the title of mad scientists, they certainly have now_ ’. 

Danny decides it’s high time he actually gets up. Making himself, and his parents, breakfast. Taking the lab stairs two at a time, rather looking forwards to seeing the little glowy star, Core, whatever. 

Putting his parents' food down, “little guy same as ever?”. 

Maddie chuckles, “pet names for an inanimate thing? A ghost thing at that?”. Jack laughs, “that’s kids for you! Purest hearts there are!”. Maddie nods, patting Danny on the arm, “and you’ve got the purest of them all. Thanks, sweetie”, turning to look at the containment cell, “and yes, no changes. Which is good. The thing seems to be able to make sounds and vibrations though. Not sure what’s causing that”. 

Danny shrugs, walks over and taps on the glass. ‘ _Fish tanks always say not to do that, but this isn’t a fish_ ’. Danny tilts his head as the Core does indeed make a sound, something like a whine from a toy that’s battery is almost dead. ‘ _It seems almost....lonely or sad? Bored maybe? I mean, It is just sitting, err floating, around. I’d be hella bored too_ ’. Danny tilts his head, his parents said ghosts and all things ghost didn’t have feelings; but that had never really sat right with him. Deciding to test something, Danny lightly taps the glass again, hearing the whine again. Glancing around, Danny taps again. Again getting a whine in response, ‘ _though it seems more energetic or maybe eager? this time. I think, I think It is actually responding to me_ ’. That thought makes Danny pale a little, frowning and looking back at his parents. Who are absorbed in test readings, occasionally having bites of food. They were treating all of this like they treated all things ghost, cold and uncaring. Danny frowns more before looking back to the Core, ‘ _if It can respond, has awareness. Then It’s sentient or something. And everything sentient has feelings, I don’t care what mom and dad say. So then, then this is kind of...cruel_ ’. Danny mutters quietly, “poor little guy”. 

Reluctantly heading back upstairs, not really pleased with his parents at the moment. At least when it was just samples of ectoplasm it didn’t really matter. That stuff was basically just blood. And all the ghosts were usually attacking people, but this Core was basically like an innocent newborn. ‘ _And it’s not like It can actually do anything. Pretty sure It can’t even move on Its own really_ ’. 

Danny sits down to eat, pointedly ignoring his sister. Who, as per usual, is absorbed in some sciency book. He’s pretty sure the reason she hadn’t run off to live at university was purely because she was using their parents for her research paper thing. ‘ _Honestly, she’s as bad as they are. Being right and her research matters more than the people’,_ thinking of the Zone Core in the basement _, ‘or other beings in general_ ’.

It was sad really, their goal was to create the centre of an entire dimension and yet they treated It like It was nothing but cells on a slide. It had to be a little sentient, _had_ _to_. For it to respond to stimuli like that. Just the same as ghosts _had_ to feel pain, right? That was one thing he could never agree with them on. He was just a kid. He’d ‘see the light’ when he was older. Him ‘seeing the light’ was definitely a large part of why they involved him in their work. That and sometimes he wonders if they simply don’t care if he gets hurt. 

Danny only gets halfway through his cereal before there’s an explosion in the lab. Danny sighs for a second, ‘ _business as usual_ ’, before blinking and instantly being worried about the Zone Core. Getting up and downstairs, picking up on his sister giving him a curious and quizzical look as he goes. 

Sticking his head out of the lower doorway, “everything o-”, cutting himself off and gaping at the chunks or shards of glass cell walls all over the floor. Breathing out, “holy shit”. Before rushing over to his dad, “you okay?”. Jack nods, “Zone Core released a bunch of energy. No clue why. But! At least we’ve got more data to work with!”. Danny blinks and looks at the floating Core, still in the same spot. _‘It was acting out...huh, I think It actually is or was bored or lonely_ ’, Danny chuckles a bit as he helps Maddie up, ‘ _wow, It threw a ‘pay-attention-to-me’ tantrum_ ’. 

While both his parents run upstairs to get equipment and a broom, leaving Danny alone in an unsafe environment like usual, Danny walks to stand a bit awkwardly near the Zone Core. “You’re bored huh? Lonely?”. It makes a slight high pitched bubbling sound, pulsing slightly and bobs up and down. “Huh, so you can move”, shrugging, “well I don’t speak vibrations or whatever. And I’ve got no clue what a ghost Core does to amuse Itself. But we could, like, booby trap some shit, ghosts like tricks so”. Danny flat out laughs as the little guy bobs up and down quickly, making cracking and humming sounds. “Well then, crimes it is!”. 

Really there’s a lot of shit he can screw with down here, the sheer amount of explosive or dissolving stuff here was absurd. And of course, none of it was really stored safely and half wasn’t even properly labelled. Danny does everything from exposing pens to goo bubbles that’ll pop as soon as his dad yells or shouts or speaks at all really, his voice pretty well always boomed. 

Danny’s got no clue if the Core can actually see but he shows It all the little ‘pranks’ anyway. It seemed to at least like the involvement or effort, at least he’s assuming the humming sound means enjoyment. 

Tilting his head towards the door before busying himself by making it look like he’s sweeping up some of the glass with his foot. Whispering at the Core, “half the fun is getting away with it”. 

Unsurprisingly, his dad bounds down first, six goo balls pop and spewing goo all over one wall the second he opens his mouth, “thanks for the help! Danny-b-OH! HAHA! Wow. Well now the mess is worse!”. Danny snorts, covering his mouth with a hand to hide his laughter. 

As Maddie comes down, “Jack! You need to better contain the sound-sensitive stuff!”. Danny scrunches up his eyes, trying hard not to laugh audibly. But the Core starts loudly bubbling and Its aura wiggles. ‘ _At least that’s easy to interpret, laughter_ ’. 

Danny helps with the cleanup, but an aggressive knock on the front door interrupts them. Danny bolts up the stairs, “I’ll get it!”. He knows his sister won’t and his parents won’t check who was there before opening the door. 

Peeking out the window to see who’s at the door, frowning at the white suits. ‘ _Fuck I hate those weirdos. My parents may be morally gray, but these guys are straight-up cruel_ ’. Walking back to the lab door, shouting down, “it’s the GIW! There a reason for _them_ to be here!?!”. 

Jack pretty well runs up the stairs, “they probably got pinged when the Zone Core formed! They did fund all of this! And of course they’d have ecto-readers active!”. 

Maddie coming up shortly after, “now what does the gov want?”. Danny just shrugs and leans against the basement doorway. 

Danny can’t help but frown at the agent, as the agent frowns at Jack, “Mr...Fenton. We picked up a massive spike in ectoenergy. Care to explain that?”. Jazz grumbles and snaps from the kitchen, “they’re ghost hunters. It’s expected”. Danny sighs, ‘ _the whole house probably has an ectofield. Heck, all four of us probably do_ ’. 

The agent shakes his head, “I said massive. Beyond what even a ghost would give off. Which leaves only one conclusion. The Green Sun project”. Maddie puts her hands on her hips, “and that’s our project. We’re still running our tests and observations”. The agent glares at her, “correction, it’s the governments' project, you’re just the ones employed to do it. Green Sun is our property upon completion”. 

“And it’s not complete until we are done our tests. You’re not needed here, now please leave”. 

Danny’s flat-out glaring daggers at the man, no way in Zone he wanted those GIW scum getting their hands on the Core. ‘ _They’d probably torture the poor guy. Or stuff It into isolation_ ’. 

The agent huffs, “I’ll be back. And you better have the project ready for transportation”. Maddie slams the door shut behind the agent, “I hate those men, even if we need their money”. Danny nods, easily agreeing. While his dad sighs but quickly smiles again, “well this just means spending even more times in the lab! It’ll be like cramming back in our college days!”. Maddie smiles warmly at Jack and the couple quickly head past Danny, going back down to the lab. 

Danny just looks down the lab stairs, frowning. ‘ _How the heck am I going to keep those bastards from taking It? Ugh, why does the government always have to be filled with pieces of shit?_ ’. Sure it was a little weird Danny being protective of a damn orb, but It clearly had a consciousness and It was in danger. 

Danny grumbles incoherently to himself as he heads back down; to finish up helping with the cleaning up. Though tilting his head at the Zone Core as he walks into the lab, It making a trilling sound. ‘ _Can It tell I’m here now? See or maybe sense different people? Cool! But that sound seemed like a happy one, huh, maybe the little guy likes me_ ’. Danny cleans up some of the debris closer to the Zone Core, shooting it sneaky smiles. 

“Sweetie, be careful. Coming into physical contact with it isn’t safe. You’d get a massive shock of ectoplasmic energy”, Danny looks back at his mom. A little surprised at actually being warned about something, ‘ _huh, must be a serious thing then. Usually the only warning given is the machine or whatever reacting after I’ve bumped into it or accidentally activated it_ ’. Danny turns and blinks at the Zone Core as It makes a low reverberating bass-boosted sound. Danny decides the sound seems kind of offended, muttering at It as he sweeps up some more, “they’re just being overprotective. Which they never really do. Just take it as a compliment that you’re strong”. 

Danny rolls his eyes at It making a quieter reverberating bass-boosted sound, “oh you baby. I may not know a ton about how Cores are supposed to look, but you’re hella bright and almost the size of my head. And apparently you’re formed from the purest ectoplasm there is”, Danny blinks at the humming and purring sound, “and I’mma gonna shut up before you develop an ego”. 

“Sweetie, are you talking to yourself or something?”, Danny jumps at his mom’s sudden voice. Rubbing his neck, “heh, just grumbling. Those GIW twats are always annoying”. 

Maddie chuckles as Jack comes up and claps Danny on the shoulder, speaking while he takes the garbage bag from Danny, “that's the government for you! Just never say that to their face!”. 

Danny chuckles but everyone looks at the Zone Core as it makes a whistling sound. Starting out one pitch but going up to a higher note at the end, ‘ _huh, that sounds kinda like what people do when they ask a question_ ’. Danny shrugs at It and then at his parents. Who both shrug back. 

Maddie muttering as Jack takes the garbage upstairs, “would really like to know why or how it’s randomly making sounds”. 


	3. Hold Me Tight And Never Let Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny makes a new friend, gains a new organ, and has to make some explanations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 21: Ooze

Danny only gets to tip a few more beakers upright before a massive shaking shudders through the house, making both his parents jump back as a table toppling over makes them scoot back towards the lab door. Danny’s about to rush after them but a creaking from above draws his attention. Gasping at the metal ceiling beam as one side snaps and swings down. _‘There’s no way that’s not going to f-’._ Danny’s mind blanks as he snaps his head down to the Zone Core, right below the fall tigectory of the beam. Panicking Danny launches himself across the room, a chunk of wall falling where he had been and blocking him from his parents. While he grabs his hands around the Zone Core and cups It as he tucks and rolls. _‘If the Core’s destroyed who knows what’ll happen. And... and all beings deserve protection!’_ The beam crashing down loudly behind him. Danny snaps his head to look at it and smiles before wincing at tingling and pain in his hands and arms. 

Snapping his head back down to the Core and gasping. Glowing Green and blue tendrils snaking out of the Core. Like liquid energy, looking sticky and like they would be dripping if they followed the rules of gravity. The green ones simply touching him and curling around him, any skin they contact instantly feeling like they’re burning, the liquid texture barely providing any relief. While the blue ones actually look to be piercing his skin, watching in almost sick curiosity as he can literally see it snaking and winding underneath his skin. Like someone’s squeezing tubes and jello into him. 

Flicking his eyes back to the Core and biting his lip as to not cry out in pain, as the Core makes a series of hums and whines. It’s aura jumping between wiggling energetically and waving softly. _‘I’m not hurting It, am I?’._

Danny goes wide-eyed and panics a bit as larger white tendrils shoot out, actually dripping with radiant white liquid, wrapping around and crawling under his the flesh of his torso. The Core either floating or being pulled closer to his chest, leaving Danny’s hands hovering in the air; covered in skinnier tendrils. _‘What is It doing, what’s going on!’._

The Core bumps into his chest, making his entire body shiver. _‘So cold!’_. Clenching his hands, which hurts as he moves the tendrils digging in there and pulling the burning skin taught, he can’t help yelping. Officially really freaked out and fearful of what’s going on. 

The Core seems to pick up on this, making a pitch heightening whistle, a question mark. Before bumping into his chest again, making a soft long hum. Danny mutters at It, “what are you doing? This, it...hurts”. The Core makes a whining sound followed by another pitch heightening whistle. Danny looks at his arms, the only spots of pain coming from the contact of the green tendrils. Assuming the Core is asking what’s hurting, “the green...ones. Their touch...hurts”. _‘I’m guessing those ones are like normal ectoplasm. So their probably corrosive and ecto-contaminating me’._

Danny shudders but smiles as he watches some of the smaller blue tendrils, that aren’t hanging out under his skin, move to be in between the green tendrils and Danny’s skin; leaving little shimmery gooey trails of white behind, that quickly seem to absorb into his skin. But the white tendrils relocating effectively alleviates the growing pain. Though he is still hurting where they had contacted him. Danny nods as he staggers up, “better. That’s better. Thanks”. The Core humming and vibrating happily in response. 

Danny lets his arms hang and hoover away from his torso as he staggers over to the chuck of wall blocking him from his parents. Occasionally glancing down at all the white tendrils squirming and clinging to his torso. He can feel that some are under the skin in his face and neck now. _‘This feels so weird. And I still have no clue what It’s doing to me’._

Danny looks over the chunk of wall, shouting, “you guys okay!?! What happened!?!”. 

Maddie grumbles in response, “those stupid agents! We warned them that damn fire ectoplasm pulse radiator wouldn’t damn work!...yes sweetie, we’re fine. Are you?”. 

Danny looks down at his chest, the Core straight up nuzzling his chest and humming happily. _‘I wonder if It realises I saved It. Or does the little guy just really like me....well I guess no one else has exactly been giving It any positive attention’._ Danny mutters, “I have no clue if I’m okay”, before clearing his throat, “I’m...alright!”. 

“Good! Just wait there!”.

Danny is goddamn content to do that “okay!”.

Danny’s hunches over a bit and leans against a chunk of rubble, before snapping his head around to the sound of a gasp. “Sweetie! What’s that thing doing?!”, Maddie tries to run over to him but a bolt of green electricity zaps out of the Core at the ground in front of her feet before she can get close. Making Danny jump a little, startled. 

The Core making a deep bass-boosted sound, pulsing aggressively; the pulse sensation travelling through the tendrils and thus all over and inside Danny, which is more than a little weird. Danny blinks down, obviously It did not like his parents, not that he blamed It for that. Danny twitches his lip up, “um heh, don’t hurt her please”. 

Danny snaps his head back up at Jack’s voice, “woah Danny-boy. Did? Did you touch It? This, I’ve never seen _anything like it_ ”. Danny frowns at the scientific curiosity in Jack’s voice. Danny flexes a finger on one hand and points to where the Core had been. Where there was now a metal beam impaling the ground, “I pushed It, out of the way. Then t-”. Danny cuts himself off and blinks, snapping his head down as it feels like wet goo pushing into his pours. Like pushing a needle through a layer of skin on his finger. Blinking as it’s clear a bit of the Core is actually inside his chest. _‘What in the world? I mean, it doesn’t hurt. But, what? What’s It doing to me?’._

Danny gets startled as another zap of green electricity zaps at the ground, looking up he can see his mom had stepped closer and was still trying to. Danny looks back at the Core and grumbles, “I asked you not to do that”. The Core makes a barely audible warble, but doesn’t zap again as Maddie steps closer cautiously. 

Maddie reaches out but stops short and just hovers her fingers about an inch away from one of the blue tendrils on his arm; all the while staring at his chest. Danny follows her gaze, letting out a long breath as it’s obvious at least half the Core is inside his chest. Maddie mutters, “It....It’s absorbing into you. I think, wow, I think It’s trying to merge with you”. 

Danny looks to Jack as he walks up, “why would It do that, Mads?”. 

Maddie shakes her head and taps her chin, watching Danny’s chest and the Zone Core, “I don’t know. It shouldn’t need a body. And It certainly doesn’t have wants or desires”. 

Danny takes a step back, feeling incredibly disturbed by them looking at him the way they do a Petri dish. While Jack speaks, “maybe a base instinct? In Its chemical code to have a body?”. 

Maddie points at Danny, “but he’s not even a ghost, he doesn’t have ectoplasm. It shouldn’t even recognise him as a viable host?!?”. 

Danny frowns, lifting one arm up slowly, rather hard to move any limb with the tendrils wrapping around and inside them. Placing said arm in front of his chest, blocking them from a full clear line of sight. Hoping that gets them to see the son not the ‘experiment’. While he squirms and shifts his chest around subtly, feeling cold and oddly full. Like he’s overeaten but in his chest. _‘Or like sucking in too much air and trying to hold it all in’_. His parents don’t seem to notice though, too caught up in arguing theories.

Wincing then as his heart aches suddenly and he can feel the tendrils or something else moving around inside of his chest, rather than just under his skin. Feeling liquid splash and seep over ribs is just plain weird; and the creaking sound is a little worrying. Tilting his head down and leaning back against a wall as it’s suddenly rather difficult to breathe. _‘What the hell!?! It’s not killing me? Trying to make me a ghost? Is It?’._

Danny whispers at the Core, while his parents just keep on bickering about theories, “my heart. The beating thing. Don’t, don’t stop it. And breathing, I need to breathe. The big sac things. Don’t hurt, don’t stop, those either. Don’t kill me”. Danny shudders as he both feels and hears the Core Itself pulse lightly, whining and humming a low tune. _‘I seriously hope that means It’s agreeing’._ Danny whispers again at the sound of the Core making a pitch heightening whistle, “I know, I know they’re probably foreign to you. But, I need them. I’m not a ghost. I’m not one of the creatures you might be familiar with. I, I don’t work the same. So please”. The Core hums low again before wiggling and pushing inside more. 

“Sweetie, are you...trying to talk to the thing?”, Danny jerks his head up at Maddie’s voice. Danny clears his throat, “uh, just thinking out loud”. Danny damn well knew they wouldn’t believe It seemed to actually understand words. And no way he wanted to argue with them about that right now. Wincing again at the pressure and fullness increasing in his chest. And now the cold felt like it was radiating out of his chest rather than into. Coughing and all three of them watch as his breath comes out in a plume of icy mist. Maddie shakes her head and runs off to grab stuff. Returning with a chair and thermometer. 

Danny gladly accepts the chair, lowering himself onto it slowly. Though he eyes the thermometer with annoyance, _‘I know them. This isn’t out of worry for me. They just want to see the results of whatever’s happening to me’._ Knowing better than to try to get out of this, Danny takes it and sticks it under his tongue, while looking down and watching the Zone Core melt into him more. It seems to be humming happily all the while, which Danny did find kind of funny. _‘I mean, this can’t feel all that great to It either’._

Danny blinks, slightly thrown off as It makes bubbling sounds, giggling. _‘Holy shit, can It? Hear me? My thoughts?’._ Danny flat-out snorts, kind of amused himself at the little guy making louder bubbling sounds and humming. Obviously that was a yes. Danny blinks, handing back the thermometer as it beeps, _‘holy shit, It, you, is...are, actually fusing to me. Becoming part of me?’._ Again, more deep humming, followed by softer humming. _‘So that’s a yes then. You’re gonna have to excuse me being a bit startled and freaked by that. Humans don’t exactly, fuse, with things. Normally’._

All three of them jump as there’s a loud banging on the house door. Maddie huffs, “Oh now what?”. 

Danny chuckles, “I bet it’s those damn agents”. 

Maddie sighs, watching Danny’s breath in the air, “probably”. She gets up and heads upstairs while Jack mutters down at the thermometer, “so cold”. Looking back to Danny, “do you feel cold?”. 

Danny blinks, he definitely felt like he had just chugged ice water, “a little, not unpleasant or freezing though. I’m okay”. Jack blinks at him a bit, “right. Right. That’s good”. Before basically returning to ignoring Danny. Running off to write whatever. 

Danny jerks his head up to the ceiling at some shouting, grumbling to himself, “great, arguing. Just what I needed”. Jumping a bit as his sister practically runs down the stairs, whispering hurriedly at Danny, “Maddie says you need to hide, hide the project, and woah”. Danny scrunches up his eyes but stands and holds his hands to hover over his chest, “hide? Jazz what’s going on?”. 

Jazz makes shooing motions at him, so he glares at her but goes into the jumpsuit closet anyway. It takes him a bit cause he can’t move very fast with all the tendrils in his skin, he can tell some are hooked into and under his muscles too. Jazz arranges some of the jumpsuits to hide him behind them, “I’m guessing you can’t move any faster. And it’s those stupid Guys In White. They want the project and they were snapping about getting weird ectofield ratings from here”. Jazz glares at Danny’s chest, at the sliver of Core still visible and the tendrils. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “oh I’m so sorry for interrupting your studies. Excuse me while I just take my cold and being stabbed by tendrils ass somewhere else”. 

Jazz glares, “you should be. I was busy. You’re too clumsy Danny. That’s probably how this happened”. 

Danny grumbles under his breath as she walks out, “for your information I was trying to protect It. It’s existence is more important than your damn books”. The Core makes another deep bass-boosted sound, clearly not impressed with Jazz’s behaviour. Danny chuckles going to speak up but sucking in a breath as his chest spasms. Flicking his eyes down and watching as the tendrils all sink into him, Core obviously completely inside him now. His limbs feeling thick and heavy with liquid -probably ectoplasm- that didn’t used to be inside his body. 

Danny promptly wraps his arms around his chest as it spasms again, but feels the Core vibrate in a way that feels kind of soothing. Danny shudders and sucks in short breaths, “sorry. This is, probably not, how this is supposed, to work. Humans, aren’t really, meant to have, Cores”. Then releasing a heavy sigh as the tightness goes away, making the fullness feel more comfortable. But tensing at the sound of footsteps, easily recognising they’re not from jumpsuit boots. _‘Shhh, no making sounds. We’re hiding’_. Danny hears a slight pitch heightening whistle, _‘um think of it like a game. The goal is to not get found. Sound will get us found, so shhhh’._

Danny feels but doesn’t hear a bubbling or maybe foaming in his chest. Looking down and wincing at the spherical glow coming from inside his chest. Knowing full well that the agents would know what’s up the second they got a good look at him. 


	4. A Home With A Heart In A Home That’s Metaphorically Lost Theirs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 30: Family

Danny pretty well holds his breath as the jumpsuit closet door opens, the action almost becoming painful before the door closes again. Breathing out with forced slowness as he hears the footsteps racing back into the lab. 

He’s about to try and figure out what to do, until he gets startled by an echoing multi-toned voice in his head. 

_‘ **Hello** ’_

_‘Um, hello?’_

Danny squints his eyes at the pleasant pleased humming sound he gets in response. 

_‘ **Home**?’_

_‘What?’_

**_‘Home? Here?’_ **

Danny tilts his head, realising the little guy seemed to be asking if It could stay, stay inside him, _‘will you be safe? Here?’_

**_‘Safe. Yes’_ **

Danny clutches the fabric of his shirt, this thing was probably not reversible, but he did rather like the little guy. And he really didn’t want the agents to have It. No way his parents would let them take him, take their son, even if it would likely be more out of scientific curiosity about all of this rather than just protectiveness towards him, _‘okay. Welcome home then’._

Danny chuckles at getting more pleased humming, but frowns at hearing someone digging through stuff in the lab and Jack snapping at whoever. 

_‘The white suits. The ones we’re hiding from. They're dangerous’_

**_‘Bad. Hide more?’_ **

Danny nods before feeling something like nuzzling inside his chest. Looking down at the tight twisting up feeling, to see the glowing light seemingly go out. Slightly worried, he touches his chest. Feeling a slight pulse and hearing a hum in his head. Smiling slightly as he realises the little guy is confirming Its location and comforting him, assuring him that It's still there.

Patting his chest before slipping out from his hiding spot and taking off his shoes to walk silently, as he can hear Jack arguing with the agent. 

Danny cautiously sticks his head out of the closet. The agent's back is to him and the only acknowledgement he gets from Jack is a few quick blinks and a slight smile. Breathing out slowly in relief before tiptoeing quickly towards the stairs and up them. 

Practically launching himself to sit on the couch; pretending to just be some normal uninterested teen. Maddie following him with her eyes, completely confused. Before they all get shooed outside, as the GIW ripped his house apart. 

Danny can’t help but smirk to himself as he lays in the grass. _‘This is kinda funny. Tricking them like this’_. Danny chuckles at the faint bubbly hum. Obviously It found this funny too. Which did make sense, It was a ghost core after all. Ghosts were supposed to be mischievous, only made sense a ghost Core would be the same. Heck, a Core was largely what contained the ghosts personality and ghostly nature. Which just made him very confusing, he basically had a ghost Core now. _‘Wonder what all this makes me’._ Danny crosses his arms over his stomach and sneakily checks his pulse _. ‘Still alive but ghost Core’._

Danny shrugs but his mental musings gets interrupted by one annoyed-looking agent. Easily hearing him grumble as he comes out. “Damn thing must have destabilised. That’s what happens when you entrust a couple of whack jobs...even if they’re good”. 

Jack walks up, “failures are the road to success!”. Maddie nods, side-eyeing Danny, “besides, have the lot of you gotten anywhere?”. 

Danny sits up and joins his dad in smirking at the agents as they pack up and leave, grumbling all the while. 

Maddie hovers her fingers over Danny’s shoulder. Danny rolls his eyes, “I’m pretty sure I’m safe to touch”. Maddie looks at her glove but nods before tapping Danny’s chest, “do you still have it?”, prompting the Core to light up again. 

Danny nearly jumps from the Core sounding flat-out protective or possessive, ‘ ** _MINE_** ’

_‘Woah there. She’s family. She’s okay, more or less. Just a little weird about ghost stuff’_

Danny points at his chest, pulling back the collar of his shirt a bit. Maddie looking over at the glowing and nodding.

‘ ** _Family_**?’

_‘She made me, raised me, protected me. That stuff. I guess you could say she’s part of my home’_

**_‘Homes’ home’_ **

Danny follows his family back inside and chuckles a little at the deep humming and warble. Though It seemed less pleased and more simply understanding. 

Danny overhears his parents as they walk into the kitchen, opting to stand outside the doorway to listen in before going in himself. He knows they’re probably talking about him and considering he’s basically part one of his parents' experiments, he’s got every right to be a bit paranoid. 

“Do you think he’ll be able to handle having that thing in him, Mads? He is pretty clumsy, you don’t think he’ll damage It? Or that It’ll damage him?”

“I don’t think there’s a choice Jack, dear. I’m not sure It even can be removed. We’ll just have to hope he doesn’t mess It up; I doubt we could make another”. 

Danny frowns, It was safe or should be anyway, where It was. Hell! He clearly cared more about It being safe -and happy- than they did. His parents also seemed to care more about their ‘experiment’ than him. Which while expected, that was usually how it was with them anyway, it was still kind of disheartening. 

Danny walks into the kitchen then, hearing the Core speak up again as he goes to make himself some food; seriously needing a dose of normal after all of this.

**_‘Home. Never leave. Are one’_**

Danny can’t help but chuckle, instantly reminded of the Lion King. And It wasn’t wrong, they had fused or whatever. Merged, eh something like that. 

Quoting the movie at the little guy, _‘“we are more than we are, we are one”’_

Danny nearly drops the milk as It hums very loudly and strongly, apparently very pleased. 

“Son? Did you just purr?”.

“Heh, sorta”, Danny taps his chest lightly. Danny’s not really sure about telling them the Core talks or has feelings. He’s not really sure about telling them anything about the little guy. Danny can’t really help the surge of protectiveness he feels, he knew his parents' intention was just to create and keep stable this Zone Core. But now that that’s done, he had no clue what their goals were. What they wanted to or might do to It. Or to him for that matter.

Jack taps his chin, “so It still can make sounds...”, trailing off as he runs to fetch a notebook. 

Danny sits down with his food but mutters through a mouthful, “what?”, at Maddie staring at him. Watching, a little weirded out, as she walks over and lifts his hair up some, “your roots...they’re white”. Danny doesn’t even get a chance to ask for a mirror as his mom just plucks out one of his hairs, making him flinch. _‘Ow...was that really necessary?’._

Both him and Maddie jump a bit from an aggressive growling sound coming from Danny’s chest; and Danny can feel It vibrate a bit violently. Maddie almost drops the hair as green electricity, from Danny’s chest, zaps her hand. Giving Danny a dirty look as she catches the hair, before it can hit the ground. Danny just glares at her, he wasn’t about to give the Core shit for retaliating like that. Before blinking at the hair, which did indeed have a solid three centimetres of white root. 

Prompting Maddie to look at it as well before looking back at his hair, muttering, “it’s spreading”. Before she rushes off with her ‘sample’. 

Danny ruffles up his own hair and downs the rest of his food. Putting away the dishes before heading to the bathroom. Tilting his head at the half-white hair, “well damn. I look like a fucking inverted skunk”. Danny can’t help but snort and start laughing, the days bullshit catching up with him. The Core quickly joining in with bubbling and crackling sounds. 

Eventually Danny yawns, “damn, I mean, of course I’m tired. But I am _so_ locking my door tonight. I can do without anyone trying to take samples or something while I’m out like a light”.

* * *

Danny spends about an hour rolling around, every time he started to feel himself slipping off he’d get a jolt of cold. Muttering at the ceiling as he places his arm over his eyes, “okay, um, Zone Core? Are you trying to keep me from sleeping or something?”. 

_‘ **Doing strange thing. Sleeping?’**_

_‘Yeah, sleep. I need that. I guess that would be strange to you. I know ghosts don’t exactly sleep’_

Danny groans, tired, at the pitch heightening whistle. ‘ _ **?**_ ’

_‘Every time I’m about to fall asleep I’m getting a surge of cold. You’re doing that right?’_

**_‘Yes. Sleep?’_ **

_‘Please cut it out. Um, let me think how to put this’_ , Danny blows air at his arm, hair standing up from how cold it is, before getting an idea. Cores and ghosts basically functioned on energy. Ectoplasmic energy but still. _‘Okay. Today’s been exhausting. As in, I’ve spent a lot of energy. Now I need to recharge, so to speak. Sleep is how a human does that, recharges’_

**‘Absorbing ectoplasm?’**

Danny snorts, _‘no. Humans don’t need that. Different kind of energy. We don’t absorb anything, just sort of...turn off for a while’_

Danny smiles and shifts into a more comfortable position at the low hum. Falling asleep in minutes. 

* * *

Danny stretches and yawns before throwing his legs over the bed. Blinking and rubbing at the fullness in his chest, remembering yesterday, “right yeah, well I’m up now. Gonna be a bit before I’m fully awake though”. Chucking, at the low hum, as he gets dressed; opting for a thick sweater just in case the Cores glow shows through his skin enough to see through a regular shirt. His limbs still felt heavy but it wasn’t exactly noticeable, his body must have adjusted or something. Danny tilts his head, “were you, uh, still conscious or whatever while I was asleep?”. 

Vibrating as It responds, ‘ ** _yes_** ’. Danny nods, knowing full well It likely would have woken him up if anyone had actually come into his room. Especially since It didn’t seem to like his family. 

Danny walks down the stairs slowly and quietly, listening for any voices. 

Danny sighs as he walks into the kitchen, while they weren’t talking about him, his parents were completely absorbed in papers. _‘No doubt that’s all stuff about me or the Core’._

Danny clears his throat, “so am I safe like this? And the Core?”. Not that he was all that concerned about his own safety really. 

Maddie glances at him, “you’re walking so you’re fine. And-”, Maddie stops and blinks, breathing out, “you’re hair...it’s white”. Danny grabs and fiddles with ends of his hair, white, he might be a bit more freaked out if it wasn’t for that weird asshole Elliot kid. Considering how the trio had ripped that guy a new asshole for messing with Sam. Everyone would probably think the new hair colour was a dig at the guy. 

Danny can’t help but snicker, “yeah. I won’t stand out too much though. So no Jazz, there’s no adverse mental effects or whatever for you to stick your nose into”. Danny flat-out glares at Jazz as she stops watching him as she sighs, seemingly disappointed. 

Danny gets startled by Jack clapping him hard on the shoulder, Core letting out a loud reverberating deep bass-boosted sound, verging on sounding like a growl. Jack blinks and lifts his hand off, the sound stopping. Only to clap him again, making the Core repeat the sound. At the fifth attempt Danny bats away Jack’s hand, “you’re going to give me a bruise if you keep doing that. What were you going to say? Earlier? Before deciding to abuse my shoulder?”. 

Jack’s eyes light up, effectively distracted from the Core's behaviour, “oh yeah! Theory was right! You’re fused! The thing’s actually intertwined into you!”. Danny’s not sure if he should be excited that Jack is excited about that. Knowing him, he probably made new theories and back up theories and back up for the backup theories. And as much as he was Jack’s son, he probably saw Danny as a bit of an experiment. _‘Or completely. Probably completely’._

Maddie sighs, “yes dear, pretty sure nothing else is even possible”, looking at Danny’s chest, “it seems like the thing is protective of you. Which makes no sense. Things like that don’t have any cognitive ability, none the less the ability to feel or care”. 

Danny can feel the Core vibrate and fill his chest up with energy a bit, ‘ _ **MINE. PROTECT. PROTECT HOME’.**_

Danny sighs and rubs his chest, _‘yeah, I know. But they don’t understand. They don’t mean to insult. They think what they say is true. Is right. And I don’t feel like arguing with them about it’._ Danny chuckles a little at the low reverberating bass-boosted sound. Seems the only difference between annoyed and angry was how deep sounding or loud it was. 

Danny finishes up his food, keenly aware but ignoring his parents' analytical staring. Getting up to put away his dishes, “whelp, I’mma head to school. Don’t wanna seem suspicious by staying home right after those twats trashed the place and found a certain something missing”. Danny grins cheekily as Jack chuckles and the Core bubbles. 

Though Danny frowns as Jazz jumps up, “I’ll drive Danny to school”. _‘Goddamnit, she just wants to pick my brain. See how all of this has ‘affected me’. Great, now I’m her experiment too'._

**_‘Experiment? Heard before’_ **

Danny nods as he follows Jazz to her car, _‘means something someone is working on, to see if they can get a predicted result. In my families case, it also includes not really caring about the feelings, wants, or opinions of the ‘experiment’. Maddie and Jack are worse, but their experiments aren’t normally sentient. Jazz’s always are but all she ever does is watch people and ask questions. Annoying, not harmful’._

**_‘Don’t like. Mean’_ **

Danny chuckles as he stares out the car window, _‘tell me about it. My family is kind of messed up. Mean I guess’_. Really it was more like they lacked empathy and sympathy, combined with narrow mindedness. And in Jazz’s case, a holier than thou ego. 

“So, how are you feeling, little brother?”

Danny sighs, “fine. I’m perfectly peachy and _normal_. Don’t go getting your knickers in a knot. Or changing who you’re writing your thesis on”.

“My thesis is on neglectful parenting and the effect of being obsessively and closely involved with ghosts. You’re already included”. 

Danny grumbles into his hand, “jerk”. 

Danny easily hears her sigh, “and there’s no way this hasn’t had some effect on you. Becoming fused with something that is basically the heart and base for another species is far beyond even the most mind-altering of drugs”.

“Yeah well, whatever. I just wanna get the hell of Highschool out of the way and hang out with my friends”.

“Hmmm, so distracting from the problem by sticking to routines and normalcy. As expected, poor parenting doesn’t exactly cultivate healthy coping mechanisms”. 

Danny groans and slams his head into the dashboard. Grumbling, “someone end me”. Jerking a bit from the pitch heightening whistle and worried sounding whine, ‘ _ **?**_ ’. 

_‘Joke, it’s a joke. Like ‘put me out of my misery’ or ‘just shoot me’ or ‘kill me now’ or ‘please let me die’. It means I’m annoyed or feed up or just really tired. My sense of humour might be a little dark’._ Danny has to restrain chuckles as It starts making bubbling sounds and then crackling. Obviously laughing, which tells Danny It probably has a dark sense of humour too. Which, for a ghost Core, was rather ironic. 

Jazz grumbles, “ugh, sounds like I need to have my car serviced again”. Danny bites his lip, _‘do that again. The crackling sound. Laugh’._ Danny has to bite his tongue and scrunch up his face to hold back laughter himself, as the Core does exactly that and Jazz starts looking around in her car for the source of the sound. 

Jazz suddenly cutting the engine was not something Danny expected. The Core shutting up a second or two too late. Jazz practically cries, “oh my Zone that’s you! You little shit!”. Now Danny can’t help but throw his head back and laugh, Core crackling loudly as well. 

Danny hears Jazz gasp, “oh OH. That’s the project doing that”. Danny slowly stops laughing and eyes her as she whispers, “almost like It’s laughing too”. 

Danny’s flat-out thankful when they finally arrive at school. Danny jerks a little as he’s opening the door, Jazz muttering, “It has a personality. Doesn’t It”. Danny can tell she means that more as a statement than a question, and that she was talking more to herself. Closing the door and giving her a dirty look, arm up over his chest. Easily hearing her mutter as Danny walks away, “he’s protective of It”. Danny scrunches his eyebrows, _‘huh, is my hearing better?’._

Danny jumps, nearly slamming into his locker door, as Tuck damn near shouts, “dude! Holy shit! What’s with the hair?!”. The Core vibrating slightly and making a little whine noise in Danny’s head, probably annoyed at Danny getting startled. 

Turning to Tucker, “blame my parents. Yesterday I looked like a fucking inverted skunk. Trust me, this is better”. Tucker snorts, “ouch. Permanent?”. 

“I think it’s neat. Even if it looks like a certain someone”. Both boys spin their heads around at Sam’s voice. 

Danny chuckling, “I rock it better”, turning to Tucker, “and probably”. 

Tucker chuckles again, poking Danny’s hair, “it’s not infectious or some shit is it?”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “you ask that after already touching. But no. And-”, Danny cuts himself off hearing the Core make faint bass boosted sounds; likely being protective again. _‘Chill. They’re my friends. Pals, buddies. Part of my home I guess’_

**_‘So many in homes’ home’_ **

_‘Heh, yeah. Humans are social creatures. But that’s pretty well it for people in my home’_

Danny blinks as Tucker interrupts his mental conversation, “the fuck kind of sound was that and how the Hell did you even make it?”. 

_‘Oh shit yeah, um okay. Hey little guy? You need to not make sounds anyone else can hear while I’m at school. Sam and Tuck hearing is fine but anyone else is bad’_

Danny clears his throat, “heh, again you can pretty well blame my parents”. Tucker snorts as Sam sighs, “wow Danny. How have they not offed you yet?”. Danny shrugs and chuckles. 

‘ _ **School**_?’

_‘This place is school. Building filled with other people my age. Supposed to learn and shit but really all anyone cares about is friends. Well, that’s what I care about anyway’_

Danny chuckles again, hearing the slight bubbling. Making Tucker squint at him, “dude really, how? The hair’s at least kinda understandable”. Danny tilts his head, realising he has no clue how this changed his freaking hair. 

Danny smirks, “actually the other way around. No clue why my hairs white exactly. The sounds make more sense. But, uh, not really for the hallway”. Tucker snorts, “wow. Screw your life then”. 

Danny nods, “you have no fucking clue. The fucking G.I.W. basically raided the house over this and then left bitching”. All three of them -technically four, as the Core crackles- laugh; Danny giving Tucker a high five. All three of them, and really most of Amity actually, hated the G.I.W.. Fucking with them was a beloved past time of every teen. Sam and Danny being the reigning champs of it. Mostly because of Sam being a try-hard extremist activist and all the things Danny had access too. 


	5. Learning The Ways Of Glowing Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 16: Bones

Danny’s sitting in eight period English, when someone, probably Dash, throws a football at him. Danny blinks a bit at his hand as it jerks up more on instinct, instinct he's never had before, and catches the ball. Feeling the Core vibrate aggressively in his chest _‘no sound. Shh. Vibrate or wiggle all you want or make sound in my head. But no audible stuff’._ Danny instantly hears whining in his head followed by low bass-boosted sound. Rolling his eyes but accidentally popping the football by squeezing too hard, as someone, probably Dash, loudly gets out of their chair; making unpleasant high pitched scraping sounds across the floor. 

Turning his head and yup, it’s Dash. As the jock snaps, “what the Hell Fentonio. Freak losers aren’t supposed to catch anything”. 

While Tucker mouths ‘wtf’ at Danny and eyeballs the popped ball a little. 

“That is enough Mr. Baxter. Sit down. And Mr. Fenton, please keep the destruction of school property to a minimum”. Danny rolls his eyes at Mr. Lancer and unceremoniously drops the destroyed ball on the ground. _‘I know I’m clumsy and have a bad habit of breaking shit but does everyone really have to call me out on it so much?’_. Danny rolls his eyes even harder over the wiggling in his chest. Just barely hearing bubbling. 

* * *

Danny basically speed walks out of school, looking to avoid the walking punishment machine that was the local king of bullies. Tucker wheezing as he catches up, “dude, how the, fuck, did you, do that? Caught shit, broke, shit”. Danny just shrugs, he really had no clue himself. 

Sam laughs, “Tucker you really should work out or anything. And Danny always breaks shit. That’s practically his job”. 

Danny points at her, “hey now. If I didn’t then who would you use as your personal scapegoat, without anyone questioning you or punishing the scapegoat?”. 

“Aww Danny, you know we love you”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “pssh well be glad, y’alls so-called affections for me are officially shown in the second weirdest way”. _‘Cause like really, nothing can beat fusing with me’_

Danny sighs and rubs his neck at the low whining in his head, clearly not happy with Danny’s thoughts, _‘a motto of Sam’s? ‘Weird’s good’. You’re good. Normally I’d shove or rub my fist against Tucker’s head for being a weird-ass. Can’t do that to you, being inside me and shit. And Sam, she’d throw her shoe at me, so I just verbally mock her. Making jokes at each other’s expense is what friends do’_

Danny tilts his head and stops walking Having no clue what the Zone’s going on with his chest, it was like there was a freaking breeze on his ribs, like, under the skin. But also like his ribs were somehow made of water and pointing downwards? Lifting the collar of his shirt _‘HOLY SHIT, HOW IN THE?’._ Danny blinks down, too stunned to even really think, at there just being a smooth freaking hole in his chest. Able to see the Core, which wiggles and makes a pitch heightening whistle, **_‘? Now can touch?’_**

Danny breathes out, “holy shit”. _‘Okay um uh, human bodies can’t normally do....this. How in the Zone?’_

**_‘Move particles. Bad? Should stop?’_ **

Danny shakes his head and blinks, letting go of his shirt, his friends exchanging worried glances. _‘It’s not harming me so it’s fine, you’re fine. Just extremely unexpected...but...’_ Danny chuckles making his friends shrug. While he pretends he’s scratching an itch, to basically give the Core a nuggie. Danny chuckles more as his friends give him some serious ‘wtf’ faces as the Core loudly crackles and bubbles. Though Danny doesn’t really want to admit to feeling relieved when his chest feels more normal again.

Tucker pokes him, “dude what the ever-loving fuck? It’s just us now, so just what? How do you sound like one of those sparkler fireworks?”. Sam taps her chin, “I was thinking more like an up-close fire pit at hundred times speed”. 

Danny snorts putting his palm to his chest, before looking around some. Turning back to their questioning faces, “I’m pretty well hiding a fugitive from those white suit twats. _Technically_ , I’m not the one making those sounds. Crackling’s laughter, by the way”. Though if he really wants to get into technicalities, then technically the Core was part of him, so technically It was him; in a sense. 

Tucker smirks, “nice. Fuck the gov”. Sam smiles and basically hugs Danny, “well I’m glad you got whatever creature away from those pieces of shit. Where is the little buddy though?”.

Danny chuckles, “glad I’m not the only one using some version of ‘little guy’ for It bu-”. Danny gets cut off by Sam putting her hands on her hips, “‘It’ really Danny?”. 

Tucker groans and flops onto the grass, “wake me up when you’re showing shit and Sam’s not bitching about pronouns”. 

‘ ** _Pronouns_**?’

Danny sighs, “Sam, I’m pretty sure It doesn’t actually have a gender. Pretty sure that’s actually impossible. Besi-”

“Well just use ‘they’ then. Really, with all the LGBTQ+ Stuff in news, I’d think you’d-”

‘ ** _LGBTQ_** +?’

“-know better. Even if their gender is outside the gender binary you should still-”

**_‘Gender binary?_** ’

“-not call the little buddy an ‘It’. Even ‘Ze’ would be better. Even if they’re-” 

‘ ** _Ze_**?’

“-Neutrois, it’s still rude. Plus what if you-”

‘ ** _Neutrois_**?’

“-give it gender dysphoria or something? Like really Danny-”

_**‘Gender dysphoria?’** _

“-they can obviously understand us. Even with Agender, Aligender, genderqueer. Just, like, use they, and-”

_**‘?????????’** _

Danny slams his hand over Sam’s mouth while Tucker gapes, whispering, “well damn. How would anyone interpret this language or whatever”, as a loud pitch heightening whistling mixed in with something like a rubber chicken getting repeatedly stepped on, sounds out.

“Sam, you’re confusing It. I don’t think It even has an understanding of gender. And ‘It’ is what It’s used to at this point. What It knows. Plus my parents would give me shit for using any human pronoun for It. They already got pissy over ‘little guy’. Not that I really care about that but still”. 

Sam rolls her eyes and bats away Danny’s hand, “that’s still rude!”. Sam goes to open her mouth again but the Core is apparently really annoyed now, making a deep reverberating deep bass sound almost aggressively loud every time Sam tries to start up again. Which results in Tucker laughing and pointing at Danny, “this creature! I think! Think I love it!”. 

Sam just throws her hands up as the Core interrupts her again, though there’s bubbling sounds added in now. Danny smirks and looks down at his chest, muttering, “you’re a little shit, I approve”. 

Tucker chuckles, as the Core hums loudly, “and what the Zone does a hum mean? And where even is It? Also, you’re a little shit too. Pot calling kettle black and all that shit”. Sam glares at Tucker as Danny responds, “happy, affection, pleased”. 

**_‘One. Are one. Same ‘little shits’’_ **

Danny snorts, wheezing a little. Because man did that sound weird in Its ‘voice’, “oh god! Yeah, yeah, sure. Same little shits”, smiling slightly, “we are one, you and I”.

Sam snaps her fingers at him, “Danny what are you even saying?”. 

Only for Danny to chuckle over more loud happy humming. Waving off their worried looks, “I’m fine, I’m fine. Talking to It. Little guy's kinda weird to explain”. Pointing at Tucker, “and Tuck, the location is part of the weird. Little guy’s inside me”. 

Tucker wheezes and makes a shit-eating face, “that’s what she said”. 

Danny glares and gives him a disgusted look, “not like that you perverted bastard. It’s in my chest you sick fuck Tuck”. 

Sam straight-up rips up his sweater, blinking at the glowing coming from his chest, “alright... now I think we need to know what THEY are”. 

“Uhh, sentient ball of ectoplasmic energy that my parents don’t think is actually sentient. Ghost Zone Core. You know _The Project....The Green Sun Projec_ t”. 

Tucker practically jumps up and waves his hands around, “woah woah, _The Project?_ As in _that_ project? The thing that’s supposed to stabilise an entire freaking dimension so we don’t all straight up die in a few years because of a dimensional collapse? The thing that could stop us from all getting offed before the heat death of the universe even has a chance to try? That’s _inside you_? Dude, are you insane?”. Sam just nods and points at Danny’s chest with the hand that isn’t holding up his sweater. 

Danny bats both her hands away, “okay first, let’s not have my chest and the Core on full display. Second, it wasn’t really intentional on my part. It was about to get freaking impaled so-”.

Sam pinches her nose, “of course it wasn’t intentional, you clumsy idiot”.

Danny glares, “no, I didn’t put It inside me. It did. And It knew what It was doing. That’s what I meant earlier when I said you guys have the second weirdest way of showing me that y’all like me. This little guy decided It liked me, thus deciding It wanted to be part of me”, Danny rubs his neck as he continues, “I just said yes, sure it was well after the fact, but still. Which turned out to be a damn good idea, since those GIW idiots then showed up to basically abduct It”. Danny snickers and the Core bubbles, remembering how annoyed those guys had been, “effectively hid the little guy right in front of their eyes”. 

Tucker waves his hands around again, “woah wait, ‘part of you’? As in It’s _literally_ part of you?”

Danny chuckles at the happy humming and possessive vibration, **_‘ONE’_**

Danny nods, “fused. Pretty well pushed Itself into my chest. Not really sure what the point of all the tentacles was though. And-”, hearing Tucker snicker, “shut it Tuck, it was not like that”, clearing his throat, “anyway. Yes, that’s what’s in me. It seems to think It’s safe in me so don’t worry. Even if I am a clumsy ass”. 

Sam tilts her head, staring at his chest, “so if they are part of you then aren’t they, like, literally you? Like how your heart is, you know, your heart?”.

Danny rubs his neck and shrugs, “yeah, pretty much. ‘One’ is how It likes to put it”, chuckling, “might have reinforced that by quoting the Lion King at It. And before you ask, yes It can talk. Just in my head though”. 

Tucker laughs, “no wonder you’ve been distracted! What does It think of us?”. While Sam tilts her head even further, “wait, isn’t the Ghost Zone Core supposed to be, like, the culmination of the entirety of the Ghost Zone? The heart of it? It’s essence? Doesn’t that make you the Ghost Zone?”. 

_‘You know, what do you think of them? They are pretty odd people’_

Danny rubs his head, “could do without an existential crisis, Sam...”

_**‘Not mean. Loud one, ??? one. Laughing one, ego one’** _

_**‘Existential crisis?’** _

Danny snorts, muttering, “well alright then”. Looking at his confused friends, pointing at Tucker, “you’re loud and laugh a lot”, pointing at Sam, “you’re, pfft, an egotistical question mark. Three question marks to be exact”. 

_‘When someone questions what or who they are and their purpose. What she’s basically saying is if you’re the Core of the Zone, then you are the Zone. And if you are me, part of me, one; then aren’t I the Zone? And thus, an existential crisis’_

Tucker mutters, “accurate but how do you speak a question mark?”. Danny chuckles at the pitch heightening whistle, pointing at his chest, “that’s a question mark”, pointing at Sam, “and that’s what you get for confusing the Zone out of It earlier”. 

Tucker snorts, “pretty sure you can’t get the Zone out of It or you?”, Tucker falls on his ass laughing, “wow! That phrase has such a different meaning now! Doing that would destroy us all!”. Danny screws up his face before laughing himself, _‘oh my god! He’s right! ‘Zone out’ is like ‘just kill me’ now!’_. Pointing at Tucker as Danny leans over, one hand on his knees, “well here’s hoping I never Zone out then! Or maybe someone should tear the Zone out of me and just end us all!”. 

Sam groans, “TUCKER! what have you done!”. Danny just wheezes, being joined by the Core’s crackling. 

Tucker smirks, “oh great, the embodiments of the world of the dead are laughing at us!”. 

After a while they all get up out of the grass and begin walking around aimlessly. Danny, looking at the time on his phone, “ugh, should probably drag my Zone damned body home”. 

Sam groans while Danny just smirks. Tucker pokes Danny, “in all seriousness though dude, you better be at least a little more careful with yourself. You’re literally holding a freaking dimension together. Technically two. And I’m including It in ‘you’, because It’s you. Part of you makes It you”. 

Danny chuckles at the loud hum and vibration, “It’s happy about that and that you think that. And Tuck, it’s not like I try to injure myself or break shit. And that actually goes both ways here, little guy does not understand human bodies at all really. I’ve had to explain sleeping so It would stop trying to stop me from sleeping. Not to mention explaining that I actually need to breathe and need my heartbeat”. 

Sam pinches her nose, “fucking Zone. How has this made you even more self-destructive”. 

Danny chuckles, “I’m not the one who attempted to eat my heart”. 

Sam glares at him, “I’m with Tucker, for once. The Core is you”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, speaking thick with sarcasm, “and that’s not going to get confusing. Not at all. Nope. Not a chance. Never”. 

Tucker mutters, “point...”. 

Danny gets a devilish grin, this crap has startled the Zone out of him, HA, so damn much, so... “don’t think you guys have much to worry about. I just about think I can afford to be a clumsy or self-destructive mess”. 

_‘Hey hey, do that chest thingy to my arm when I push up my sleeve. It’ll be funny’_

**_‘Prank? Joke?’_ **

Grinning wickedly, ‘ _Exactly_ ’ 

Lifting up his arm and pushing up his sleeve, only for it to bend into the shape of the pretzel he had eaten earlier and form a bunch of little holes as if holes were chunks of salt. Danny falls on his ass laughing and Core crackling, as Tucker gags and Sam looks horrified. Sam shouting after a beat, “what the Zone Danny! Which one of you did that!?!”. Tucker points at him, hands on his own knees, “better question, HOW!?!”. 

Danny holds up a finger as he collects himself, talking over the continued crackling, “It did. Though I may have asked. And the answer It gave me is, just manipulating my particles. And that was when It did that to my chest. Well...okay, It just made a big hole, not turned it into a freaking pretzel”. 

**_‘You can too. Are one. Can do same’_ **

_‘Wait what? Are you saying that I could, like, use whatever abilities or control over my body you have?’_

**_‘Yes. Am you. Are one’_ **

_‘How???’_

**_‘?????‘_ **

_‘Okay...I’m guessing I should already know how? Or a ghost would?’_

**_‘Yes. Human no ghost. Is ????’_ **

_‘Heh, yeah. You only understand ghost. I only know human. This is a learning experience for both of us’._

Tucker straightens up slowly, his words pulling Danny out of his head, “fucking Zone man. If your body can pull crap like that then are you even destructible? Can you just go fucking free willy and toss all forms of self-preservation out the window?”. Sam points at Tucker, “don’t give him ideas!”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “Tuck, I’m not about to intentionally do something that should off me just to find out”. 

Tucker stares at him, “dude, opening a hole in your chest should have offed you”. 

All three jump as the Core makes a loud whine, Danny puts his hand on his chest as the whine starts getting painfully high pitched, “woah there! You didn’t know! Like I said, not normal!”. Tucker starts laughing while Sam facepalms, muttering, “for the love of- they’re going to destroy themselves”.

_**‘NOT NORMAL NO MEAN DEADLY’** _

_‘I know, I know....but I was fine and I didn’t want to upset you. I think anything a ghost can survive, I can too’_

Danny pats his chest a few times at the pleased humming, borderlining on purring. 

Sam glares at Danny’s chest, “I hope It’s happy over something you thought at It, not at what I said”, Sam facepalms, “crap now you’ve got me calling them an It”. 

Danny groans as they begin walking towards his home, mild crisis over, “just use ‘It’, seriously. If It’s me then I’m telling you It’s pronouns are ‘It’. So chill”. Sam crosses her arms and huffs, “well what does...It...want?”. Danny tilts his head, _‘well? Is ‘It’ actually fine’_

**_‘One. Want same’_ **

Danny chuckles, looking at Sam, “to quote exactly, but in my own voice because I can not make those sounds....to my knowledge anyway. ‘One. Want same’. So use It’. 

Tucker squints at him, “um, ‘one’? The heck does numbers have to do with anything?”. 

Danny tilts his head back smirking slightly, “okay to translate. ‘We are one and the same. What you want I want’. Like I said, It uses the term ‘one’ a lot”. Sam sighs, “what about before you stared calling It an ‘It’”. Danny blinks, “um Sam It has never used any pronoun for Itself. Hell, the closest Its said to any pronouns is the occasional ‘you’. Like I said, that stuff’s foreign to It”. 

Sam waves her hands around while Tucker snickers, Sam speaking, “so what? Do ghosts not have pronouns?!?”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, standing in front of his house, “It’s not a ghost. Technically It’s an organ. More like a heart and brain”. Tucker points at him, “Aka you’re kind of a ghost now”. 

Danny rubs his neck, “just one part Tuck. Do I look like a ghost to you? I don’t even glow for fu- serisouly? You little shit”. Danny makes a mock pouty face at his hand, which is now glowing. While Tucker starts laughing, the Core’s crackling joining in. Sam smirks, “you better hope It doesn’t start making ‘glowing with happiness’ a literal thing”. Danny chuckles, “yeah having a positively glowing complexion wouldn’t actually benefit me. Anyway, see y’all tomorrow”. 

Sam pretty well has to drag Tucker off as she waves goodbye. 

Danny pushes in the front door with his hip, _‘just so you know. You can’t be making my body do ghost stuff like glowing or the manipulation thing if anyone who isn’t my home are around. Especially if the white suits are around’_. Danny shakes his head and chuckles as the Core whines, annoyed. _‘Yeah hiding sucks, but we, specifically you, have to. I’m just glad you’re stuck with me not in some damn glass box_ ’. Earning pleased humming in response.

Danny jumps a little from Maddie’s voice, “sweetie, you should have come right home. We need to keep an eye on you”. Danny grumbles to himself, “more like you want access to, and the ability to observe, your new little project”. 

Danny shrugs and smiles, sitting down for supper. Chuckling a little at the food being ice cold and it’s damn well obvious they had made sure it would be cold for him. Sticking some of the noddles in his mouth while looking at Maddie questioningly. She tilts her head, “it fine?”. 

Danny rolls his eyes and sighs, eating some more as he responds, “it’s fine, better warm, but it’s whatever”. 

Maddie nods curtly, “well the Zone Core’s cold and It makes everything around It cold. So best not make your body temperature any more hot for It”. 

Danny pretty well tunes out everything else she says. _‘I’m not too hot for you, am I? Like, my body?’_

**_‘Was. Home good now’_ **

_‘And hot food? That’s okay?’_

**_‘Yes. Cold fast’_ **

Danny smirks as he finishes his food off. He definitely would have been bothered by it being stone-cold before. Shaking his head as he heads to bed. 

* * *

Danny lays with his arms in the air, muttering at them, “sooooo, you got any useful tips on how I’m supposed to use you or whatever? Do the body stuff?”.

_**‘Shift around. Move particles’** _

_‘That doesn’t actually help. Humans can’t do that. So I don’t really have any clue what that’s supposed to feel like. Wait, actually...why don’t you just do it and I’ll try to copy the way it feels?’_

Danny shifts in bed a bit and waits, watching his arms, as the Core hums acceptingly. Tilting his head a little as both his arms go all pretzel again. He could tell there was a sort of static feeling in his chest and something like slowly pulling apart Velcro in his arms. And his arms felt closer to a liquid than to having solid bones, making him blink, _‘hey, are my arm bones solid right now?’_

_‘ **Bones**?’_

_‘Uh yeah. Bones are like the base structure for a human body. They’re hard and white. Teeth are bones! So like teeth, but of all different kinds of shapes’_

**_‘No. No solid’_ **

_‘Now that’s helpful. Also not normal for a human. I though you were just, like, changing their shape. Not straight-up liquifying them’_

**_‘??Bad?’_ **

_‘Okay, rule of thumb. Unless it’s causing pain, to either of us. It’s okay’_

Danny smiles loosely at the pleased humming. 

_‘Wait, you can actually feel my pain? Right?’_

_‘ **Yes** ’_

_‘Good, might be a problem if you couldn't’_

Danny shifts again, “okay you can stop now, with the arm pretzels”. Watching as his arms return to normal. Danny lowers one arm, deciding to focus on just one. Figuring the whole liquid thing would be easier than trying to copy freaking Velcro tearing, trying to recreate the millions of little wiggles, smirking as his forearm sags as if he broke all the bones. Poking at it, watching it react like a limp noodle. Danny snorts, “that’s mutually disgusting and hilarious”. Shifting, “now to actually move it into something instead of just being liquid in skin”. Danny scratches his head a bit before smirking _‘maybe the tendrils underskin thing?’_

_**‘??’** _

Danny jerks pulling his solid arm to his chest as trying to make the snaky tendril feeling just hurts. But it’s not the kind of pain he’s ever felt before, the closest thing he can think to compare it to, is being stabbed in the chest by a fire poker but the size of his entire chest. Flinching from the, definitely pained sounding, harsh static sound. 

_**‘!!!!!’** _

Patting at his chest, “okay okay. Ow. Not trying that again. Not that way, anyway. Ow. I hurt you, didn’t I?”

_**‘!!YES!’** _

Leaning his head against his beds' headrest, “sorry, sorry. Never done this before. But, uh, at least I know now that I’ll know if something hurts you”. Danny sighs, getting no kind of response. Grumbling, “you givin’ me the silent treatment? Or did I really mess you up?”

_**‘No. Okay’** _

Danny sighs, not worried now but not exactly impressed, “well getting pissy with me is kind of mean. I don’t understand, yet, how you work. How to use you or any of this. It’s as confusing to me as the Neutrois thing Sam was going on about, is to you. Oh, and I have no clue what ‘Neutrois’ is either”. 

Danny snorts and smiles at the slight bubbling feeling. Lifting his noddle arm back up, “you fine if keep trying to figure this out? Not with the tendril feeling though. Not doing that again”. 

_**‘Yes. Learn’** _

Nodding Danny cautiously manages to make his chest feel all staticy. _‘Okay, there’s that. Not sure what that does though’_

_**‘Chest? Feeling?’** _

_‘Yeah that, like static. Think I’m more specifically feeling you being staticy’_

**_‘Yes. Stretch to arm’_ **

Danny shifts again but does as he’s told, easily able to tell why he didn’t pick up on this earlier. He could just barely feel it. Flowing inside his arm like someone was ever so faintly pouring water, just static water. Tilting his head as he tries to make it bend sideways, getting the Velcro feeling. Smirking and pushing it more, making his arm curve and then make a little square. “HA!”. 

Core bubbling, **‘not pretzel’**

_‘It’s something! I’m working on it!’_

It takes just over a half an hour but he manages to make an arm pretzel. chuckling, “now how the hell do I brag about this? ‘Guess who learned how to liquify their own arm and bake flesh pretzels with it? This weird, and probably horribly disturbing you, little shit; that’s who!’. Though I have no clue how doing this is useful”.

_**‘Proud. Avoid thrown weapon’** _

Danny blinks, _‘um what? Thanks but how does this avoid a weapon? And I don’t really get weapons thrown at me much’_

_**‘Brown thing?’** _

Danny snorts, _‘that wasn’t a weapon, though he was trying to hurt me with it. That’s a football, used to play a game. One with way too much running and usually played by jerks like him. At least at my school anyway’._

Danny tilts his head, “hey, if I try to stab myself with a pencil could you show how this is useful?”

‘ _ **Yes**_ ’

_“And I won’t get hurt?”_

‘ _ **Right**_ ’

Danny shrugs and grabs a pencil, “well okay then”. Before aggressively trying to stab his hand, flat-out laughing as his hands splits in half, making him miss. Trying again and having the same happen. Danny can’t help but start laughing, almost manically, as he just goes all out, trying to stab his hand well over twenty times. 

Flopping back on his bed and fiddling with the pencil, laughing faintly, “well okay then. Point made....also insanely funny”, smirking, “I’m so pulling this on Tuck. Make the fucker try to stab me, so be prepared for that, probably really stupid, idea. Tuck might put his all into it”. Danny can’t help but start laughing again at the Core’s bubbling sounds. 

Tossing the pencil up and easily catching it, raising an eyebrow, “my coordination looks to be better too. Which fine, isn’t saying much since I barely had any to begin with”. Shrugging, _‘maybe I’ve got better aim too?_ ’. Pulling his arm back before whipping the pencil at one of the smaller stains on his wall. Jerking a bit as it goes straight through the fucking wall, “heh, least I hit...so stronger too I guess”. Before having to bite back a laugh, as Jazz shouts, “WHAT THE ZONE! A PENCIL!?! DANNY!”. 

Opening up his door, restraining a smile to the point where it’s probably really obvious he’s doing that. While Jazz holds the pencil out in front of his face, “why?!? The house doesn’t need to be more damaged! And stop laughing, you could have hit me. And I have no clue why you threw a pencil that hard”. 

“Er, um”, Danny clears his throat, “wasn’t _that_ intentional. Just wanted to see my aim. Didn’t expect it to go through the wall”. 

Jazz taps her chin, “so you’re stronger and you’ve been testing things out. Parents obsession rubbing off...”. Danny groans, “you’re a scientist too! Go to bed Jazz”. Danny doesn’t even give her a chance to respond, pretty well closing the door in her face. 

Rubbing his neck as he looks at the hole, before putting a poster over it. Not really wanting Jazz peaking in at him or something. 

Danny groans, pesky sisters, before starting to walk to his bed. 

_**‘Walk always?’** _

Danny grumbles tiredly, “uh yeah, that’s how people get around”. Danny shakes his head at the pitch heightening whistle, “I don’t know what’s confusing you”. 

Danny yawns but snaps his eyes open and yelps quietly, as he starts floating. Flailing his arms a bit before wrapping them around one of his bedposts. “Holyshit. Okay, alright. So, um, floating huh? This is how it feels to get around like a ghost?”, jerking and just barely landing properly on his feet as he basically falls out of the air. Feeling a slight wiggle in his chest and quiet whine. Patting his chest, “it’s fine. That’s just something else humans can’t do. But I definitely want to figure out how. And I’m also very awake now”. Danny tilts his head to the window and grins wide, _‘is, is there a height limit to the floating?’_

_**‘No, ?’** _

Grinning wide at the window, “awesome. That’s like flying, like in the freaking sky. Screw sleep, we’re doing that”.

_**‘Need sleep’** _

_‘Well yeah, but humans can go without for days. Just not that healthy. I skip one or two nights of sleep all the time’_

Danny’s not sure what to make of the combination of a pleased hum and annoyed bass-boosted sound. But chuckles as he starts floating again. Tilting his head up at the ceiling, “now obviously I have no clue how to make this happen or drive it, so just float me around some. I’ll do the try and copy shit again”.

Danny can’t help the wide smile as he floats upwards, tilting his head down at the floor before he straight-up flips upside down in the air. Moving his hands out to lightly touch the ceiling, “fuck this is cool”. Smiling at the loud happy hum, before smiling wide, “hey? Keep me up by the ceiling for a second but don’t move me around. I’ve got a joke to make”. Danny starts instantly giggling as the Core bubbles, before he even starts using his fingers and toes to spider walk across the ceiling. Flat-out laughing now, 

_🎵 “Ghost-Man, Ghost-Man_

_Does whatever a Ghost can, maybe_

_Can he spin a web? At this point, probably_

_All because he’s become rather ghostly._

_Look out!_

_Here comes Ghost-Man!_

_Is he strong?_

_Listen bud,_

_he’s got ectoplasmic blood_

_Can he float above the bed?_

_Take a look overhead_

_Hey, there_

_There floats Ghost-Man._

_In the chill of night_

_Learning to control his shit_

_Lookin’ like a glowing light_

_Body manipulation to avoid every hit._

_Ghost-Man, Ghost-man_

_Friendly neighbourhood Ghost-Man_

_Logic and reality_

_He’s defied_

_Now he’s fused to mortality_

_To him, deaths a great big mess_

_But he swears! He’s trying his best_

_You’ll never catch the Ghost-Man!” 🎵_

Danny can’t help but curl up, hand over his mouth, doing his damnedest to muffle his laughter. His Core crackling but also making the confused whistling. Danny wheezes out, “phone, gimme phone”. Danny’s laughing too hard to be startled by his phone just floating up to him, green energy wiggling around it. “Fucking telekinesis, well alright then”. Grabbing at his phone to play the 1967 Spider-Man theme song. Resulting in loud crackling and bubbling; which just makes him laugh even harder. 

Jazz bangs on the wall some, so Danny forces himself to be quiet. Wheezing out, “okay little guy, someone’s ruining our fun by trying to sleep. So hush it”. Shaking his head and giggling quietly as his Core just starts vibrating like crazy. _‘Let’s move around some more, nice and slow. Not! Fucking whip me across the room! Don’t hit anything though’_

Danny just lets himself go limp as he does indeed start fucking ping-ponging around the room. Grinning his ass off and holding it hard so that he doesn’t laugh, _‘I probably look like a fucking mad man’._ Having to bite back a laugh at that thought, especially when his Core stops to dangle him upside down in front of his door mirror. His wide stiff grin indeed looking crazed and his hair’s a complete mess. Grinning as wide as he can, to the point of pain. Watching his white hair float around like he’s underwater.

_**‘Hurt self,?”** _

_‘Sometimes I just like to suffer alright? It looks ridiculous so it’s funny. More floaty, but for learning this time’_

Danny chuckles and his Core bubbles, as he starts getting piloted around the room again. Slowly this time and with Danny actually paying attention; skin feeling like it’s being tickled by feathers without feeling ticklish. Insides feeling like all of him had sucked in a bunch of air. Blinking down at his glowing arm, _‘gonna take a wild guess and say I need to be glowing?’_

_**‘Yes. Directs, moves’** _

Danny nods, tilting his head as he floats in a little circle and up and down. Feeling like the little ‘feathers’ are bending different directions and catching on the air. Poking his chest, “hey, let me try moving around. Keep me up here though. Goin’ splat is not desirable”. 

Danny’s instantly surprised at how easy it is to move the ‘feathers’, quickly not really have to focus at all. Chuckling, “well I guess floating is a really basic ghost thing”. Core humming to the affirmative. Tilting his head, “the air clutching skin tickling feather feeling is the glow? Ghostly aura?”.

_‘ **Yes** ’_

_‘Nice. Figuring out floating **and** glowing’ _

Danny points at the ground, “nice nice, now put me down. If this is so basic, I better be able to pull this shit off without accidental self/you harm”. Danny squints his eyes at the mischievous bubbling, but nearly face plants into the floor as he just drops out of the air. Hands and feet shooting out on new instincts to catch himself. 

Blinking before sitting cross-legged on the floor and rubbing his fingers together, _‘alright, add in more durable. An impact from that height should have hurt regardless. And my body just subconsciously knows what to do to protect my ass now?’_

Danny chuckles and rubs his neck at the soft whine and confused whistling. “Heh, humans are really breakable. And I’m clumsy. Friends like to say my body missed out on the genetics for basic self-protection and self-preservation. Normally, I would have just faceplanted into the ground. Probably broken my nose and knocked myself out in the process. I’ve broken it, like, seven times just from walking into walls. That’s why everyone keeps giving me shit about my clumsiness”. _‘And if my parents actually cared they probably wouldn’t allow me to handle anything glass. The school doesn’t”._

**_‘Break nose?’_ **

_‘Yeah, it’s a bone thing. Since bones normally can’t bend or, well, do anything you can do to them. They are breakable and that’s, like, super painful and bad. But hey! Something tells me if I did somehow break a bone, you -or me I guess- could just liquify it and reform it. Insta fixer-upper!’_

Danny chuckles, “when that inevitably happens I’m going to scare the crap out of whoever”, snorting then at the bubbling sound. 

Flopping to lay on the ground, “okay, I’mma try this shit”. Smirking as he makes his Core staticy and pulls it overtop his skin, mentally softening the static till it’s feathers. Easily getting his glow on. Then floating up off the floor as he pulls in air into all of him, chilling it automatically. 

Putting his arms out to the side as he floats himself around jerkily and slowly, eventually getting a good rhythm to it. Floating over to the window and opening it, grabbing onto the windowsill, “hey, is invisibility something you can do? Like, to my body?”. Danny grins wide over all of him vibrating and twitching slightly, even feeling it in his bones and stomach. But looking at his hands, totally invisible, he hardly cares that it feels funny. Core humming happily as he lifts his head out to look at the night sky with wide eyes, “now no one can see so, just like, keep me invisible like this. Oh and take over the floating if I fuck up and start falling”. Danny doesn’t answer the confused whistle, giving It the answer by pulling himself through the window and just going up. 

Danny only goes slowly until he floats through his first cloud. Trying to keep his overjoyed laughter quiet. Tilting his head, “I’ve never been so close to them before. Able to see them without anything in my peripherals isn’t like being amongst them”. 

_**‘Them? White light spots?’** _

_‘Yes! Stars! I’ve always loved them. Looking up at them, everything else just falls away. If I ever get lost, I can just look up; let them guide me home. If I ever were to just go up and up, I could just get lost in them. I can lose myself for hours just staring, dropping any awareness of the world; totally enamoured with their soft light and glow’_ Danny tilts his head, lifting his hand in front of his face, speaking with soft wonder, “I glow all soft white light now too”. Letting his arms dangle limp, floating slowly upwards and watching the stars twinkle. Acutely aware of the vibrating and light air-filled feelings. _‘I’mma little star blessed cloud right now’_. Danny hums himself in tune with his Cores humming. 

Chuckling as he eventually flips over to look down at his town, “I’ve really got my head in the clouds now. Wonder how many I could hit”. Thinking as he sets off, easily going well over fifty mph, _‘gonna see just how fast I can go. Clouds are officially way more wonderful than I already thought they were’._

Winding up with both of them laughing again as he zigzags to hit every single cloud. Only to suddenly find there’s a freaking building right in front of his face, yelping, “SHIT!”. Hardly thinking about the stronger and slightly faster vibrating as he phases straight through the building. 

Turning around to look at the building as he floats out the other side of it, breathing out, “holyshit. I mean, it’s been a while since I’ve faceplanted into something. But intangibility man, oh and thanks for that. Keeping me from face fucking the side of some poor guys apartment”, snorting, “that would have been one Hell of a mess to clean up. If I were a regular human anyway”. 

Danny chuckles as his Core bubbles. Slowly floating towards the ground. Danny crosses his arm and rests his head on them, watching people just below him walking around. _‘Everyone always says nights in cities are the most dangerous time. But really, that’s when everything’s all beautiful and soft. Everything’s right with the world when there are stars in the sky, with neon lights bathing the cement and pavement in an artificial glow. Everything glows at night, nothing like the harsh brightness of day. Makes everything seem better, and less intense’_

Danny flies home slowly, Core humming with soft happiness. 

Gliding and nestling into his bed, yawning, “you know. When I first saw you. Thought pretty, beautiful. Like a little star. That’s what you are, Little Star. My Little Star...” Danny trails off as he falls asleep, loud happy humming in his ears. 


	6. Flipping Out Some Skills And Taking Some Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 29: Heat

Danny walks up to Tucker, “I’mma punch you”. 

Tucker looks at him confused and concerned, “wha-”, promptly jumping back as Danny’s fist goes through his face. Danny curls up, laughing and Core crackling, while Tucker shouts, “dude! What the fuck! Holyshit! Oh my ghoul. Sweet Zone you little shit! You-you little shits!”. 

“What’s space boy doing now?”, Sam comes up and puts her arm on Danny’s shoulder. Danny, righting himself, “putting my fist through random things”, pointing at Tucker, “namely, Tuck’s face”. 

Tucker starts poking at Danny’s hand, “please tell me you knew for sure you knew that would happen. The go through thing”. Danny chuckles and smirks, “that would be telling, wouldn’t it?”.

“I hate you”. 

Sam rolls her eyes, “the only thing that needs going through is this bullshit mess called our lives”, pointing at Danny, “especially you. You might learn how to not beat yourself up, if you even attempted at making order out of your bullshit”. Danny shrugs loosely, “sorry, lost cause. My bodies trapped in the clouds”. 

_**‘Good. Like clouds’** _

_‘Hmmmm, yeah. Wet yet soft. Like cotton candy made out of sparkles and metallic mousse’_

Danny tilts his head, “ugh now I want birthday cake cupcakes with chocolate mousse on top”.

Tucker points at him, “you know, part of a conversation being inside your head is going to get hella annoying. Why do you want cupcakes now?”. 

Danny points up, at one of the clouds in the sky, “thinking of the feeling of clouds. Going at the big guys is like gently smashing a fluffy cupcake into my face. You know, like how some of the icing gets in your mouth when that happens? Yeah that, but with mousse. Overall wet and soft”. 

Sam grimaces, “you’re the only one with that kind of experience here. Normal people don’t face fuck their food”. Tucker points at her, “better question how does he even know what smashing his face into a cloud feels like?”, pointing at Danny, “you’re parents didn’t, like, make a cloud or some shit in the living room? I wouldn’t be surprised but still”. 

“Huh?”, Danny shakes his head, “naw, I full-body fucked multiple clouds last night....and an apartment complex, that was an accident though”. 

Tucker mouths at him, ‘how the fuck?’. While Sam groans, “you can’t even go a few days without attempted self-destruction. Expect now attempted self-destruction is more like attempted planetary destruction. Can’t you at least attempt not to kill us all?”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “if anything, me not having actually self-destructed by now means y’all should be singing my praises. I can handle bullshit without imploding. And you’ll be happy to know, little guy’s got self-preservation instincts. So I’m not lacking that shit or whatever now. That’s also why I didn’t break my nose on my floor after falling from the ceiling”. Danny tilts his head down to his chest at the bubbling, “you know, if I wasn’t used to nearly and actually face fucking things, your stunt would have scared the crap out of me”.

Tucker points at him, “you not even flinching from things slamming into your face, is actually kind of unsettling and scary you know? And how the Hell did you even get on the ceiling to be able to fall from it? And that doesn’t answer the cloud thing?”. 

Danny looks around, there’s people fucking everywhere; which was expected since they were walking to school. Grabbing their wrists and dragging them into an empty alleyway. Smirking as his glow lights up and he floats up, dragging them up with him about a foot off the ground. Tucker grabs Danny’s arm, who laughs, while Tucker yelps, “Holyshit dude! You can fucking fly!”. Sam snapping at Danny, “you better not drop me! You ass!”. Danny just grins wide at them. Before bursting out into laughs, Sam and Tucker eventually joining him. 

Walking out of the alleyway, Tucker shakes his head at Danny, “at this point, do you even qualify as human? And congrats, if you ever accidentally let go of a helium balloon you can actually go and get it”.

Sam rolls her eyes, “more like he’ll go too high and knock himself out from lack of air”. Danny huffs, “Little Star’d catch me”. Smirking at the aggressive happy yet protective hum and vibrating. Sam and Tucker share a look, Tucker snickering, “‘Little Star?’”. 

Danny blushes, “It looks like a star, okay. And I might have been half asleep”. 

Chest humming and purring slightly, **_‘like. Homes home stars. Star’s home’s home stars. Home in home. Glow like star too. Home is home’s home. Star star star?’._**

Danny just stops walking, looking completely baffled, Tucker raises an eyebrow at him, “dude did you just break or something dude?”. 

Danny quirks up the side of his mouth, muttering, “that’s officially the weirdest and most confusing thing I’ve ever heard. What was that supposed to mean?”. Tucker snorts, “half a conversation again. But if it’s weird I want to hear it word for word. What did the ball of energy holding together an entire dimension that decided It wanted to be fused with a starboy who’s body is on a constant collision course with pain, have to say?”.

**_‘Little Star, like. Home’s home is stars. Home says am star too. Am home’s home. Home think glow make star. Home star too. Star star star’_ **

Danny tilts his head, “that made slightly more sense...maybe. And ‘Am’ is the closest I think you’ve ever come to a pronoun towards yourself”. _‘You saying you like the name I basically gave you? And that I’m also a star? And that the stars are my home? So like...oh, OH. Okay, the stars are my home but you’re a ‘star’ so my home’s inside me. But I’m also a ‘star’ so I’m my own home and the home of my home?’_

Danny falls on his ass laughing at the happy loud purrs and hums. Danny chuckles, “maybe I should make “Am” your name as well”. 

While Tucker glares, snapping his fingers, “dude, don’t leave us hanging. Also, way to make yourself seem insane”. Sam snickers as she picks Danny up, “Am is less silly” pretty well guiding him in the direction of the school. 

**_‘Little Star?, like’_ **

_‘Am the Little Star. That way we both named you. Kind of how Tuck’s name is actually Tucker. But I call him Tuck. Little Star is MY name for you. Everyone else can call you Am’_

Danny blinks, getting happy humming, and wipes a laughter tear from his eye, clearing his throat and blushing when he realises he’s being stared at by multiple people, “heh, whops”. 

Ruffling up his hair, “awkward. Anyway. ‘like. Homes home stars. Star’s home’s home stars. Home in home. Glow like star too. Home is home’s home. Star star star? Little Star, like. Home’s home is stars. Home says am star too. Am home’s home. Home think glow make star. Home star too. Star star star’. There’s your fucking riddle Tuck”. 

Sam laughs as Tucker rubs his head, “your poor head. What does that even mean?”. 

Danny chuckles, “well here’s a hint. It almost exclusively calls me ‘home’. And ‘home’s home’ means any place or people I feel comfortable around/in. Well, and my family”. Danny can’t help but snicker, Core bubbling as well, at Tucker groaning and giving him a pleading look. Danny smirks, “the stars are my home. I’m Little Stars home. I can glow like a star, so I’m a star. Sooooo”. 

Sam facepalms, muttering, “star star star. Fucking Zone. How does Its brain or whatever even work?”. 

Danny shrugs, “energy go zappy zappy. It basically is a brain. Ghost brain. More extreme than that actually since It’s basically the Ghost Zones Ghost brain”. Tucker snaps his fingers, “and you’re it’s human brain”. 

Danny blinks, “you know, I’m gonna have to deal with that particular existential crisis eventually”. 

“Don’t forget the species crisis”

“And the being an experiment crisis, since we know you’ve been thinking about that with your weird-ass family”

“Add in mortality crisis, cause are you even alive?”

Danny slaps his hands over their mouths and glares at his chest. Core crackling along with his friends snickers. “Are you trying to make my brain implode? A person should be legally obligated to not have to deal with mental crises before school”. Tucker rolls his eyes and continues walking, “school IS a mental crisis, dude”. Sam jabs him, “more like a physical one. You’re the smart one, Mr. Techno Geek. I’m the Ninja Goth”. Danny runs up and throws his arms around their shoulders, “and what does that make me? Cause Spacey Graceless seems ineffective now”. Tucker sighs, “ahh no more days of the Goth, the Geek and the Graceless”. Sam snorts, “He's still graceless”, Sam smirks at Danny, “Star Ghost. Or Star Gauche, since that sounds like ghost”. Danny snickers, “gauche ghost. Though flat out calling me ‘the Ghost’ is just asking for trouble from the GIW idiots”. 

Tucker rolls his eyes, “Ghost makes more sense and not just cause of the questionable state of your chest. Your family is ghost crazy, your house is filled with ghost stuff, you’ve probably been ecto-contaminated all your life”. Sam butts in, “and really, Danny, there’s no chance you’re not going to be working in ectology. Even if you never pay them much attention, you know shit. And think about how you could change the field! You have always thought they had emotions, could feel, and that there were good ones. Now you pretty well have proof! And you can probably understand, relate to, and understand them better than anyone else now!”. 

Danny groans, “yes because I would totally be listened to!”, grumbling, “regardless of me being, you know, right. The field is half founded on ghosts being emotionless evil things. No one who thinks otherwise is gonna make it. That or they keep their mouths shutting and just hunt the nasties”. Patting at his chest comfortingly when the Core whines sadly a little. _‘You and ghosts are definitely not evil or emotionless. My folks are just blind and willfully ignorant or whatever’_

_‘ **Mean** ’_

_‘Not going to disagree with that’_

Sam rolls her eyes, “then find others”, as they walk into the school. “Plenty of people who were right stood alone. Where even mocked”. 

Tucker snickers, “you've already got the mocking down. Besides, what else you gonna do? Not even I’ve got the grades or drive for anything in the space-related fields. You certainly don’t. Only other thing you’re really knowledgable at all on is ghost shit. Zone! You could probably teach that ectology class they want to trial run this year”. 

Danny groans as they all flop down in their seats. Replying sarcastically, “ah yes, that’s just great Tuck. Teaching people I go to school with. What a wonderful idea. I’ll totally be listened to. I totally won’t get harassed or bullied”. 

Tucker jabs him, “you could give fucking detentions dude. Seriously, who’s stupid enough to try and shove the person who could hold them after school into a locker?”. Danny turns around and glares at him, “you know I’d have to talk to their parents too? Not to mention I don’t know shit about teaching”. 

Sam and Tucker glance at each other, Tucker pointing at him, “dude, you literally give talks at conventions. Same damn thing”. Danny was about to respond, only for Mr. Lancer to clear his throat, signally the beginning of class. 

Danny’s got no clue what to make of the quizzical looks Mr. Lancer shoots him nearly all class. But it is making him rather paranoid that he’s doing something fucking weird. Core whining, somewhat bothered, in his head. _‘He’s acting funny. I can be a bit paranoid and I usually get in trouble when Lancer’s staring at me’._ The slight bass-boosted sound in his head makes it clear the Core is not happy about that. Not like Danny was happy about it either. 

Surprise, surprise, Mr. Lancer motions for Danny to come talk to him; Tucker and Sam giving him sympathetic looks as they leave. 

Mr. Lancer speaks as Danny leans against the teachers' desk, “you’re not in trouble. I actually have a request or offer to pitch”. 

Danny blinks, _‘what? What the Zone?_ ’. “Uhhh, what is it?”. 

Mr. Lancer taps a few papers and shuffles them around, obviously thinking. “As you are certainly aware, there’s an ectology trial course that’s going to be offered soon”, looking to Danny, “As such, I’d like you to teach it”. 

Danny’s not sure what to make of the Core crackling at him. Sam and Tuck totally jinxed him! “No offence but... I’m a student and totally untrained in every way. Isn’t that not only illegal but kinda dumb?”.

Mr. Lancer sighs, “Daniel, no one has actually applied. Your parents are far too busy with The Project and everyone hates the GIW, even I do. Being a Fenton alone gives you enough of a name, and, from what I’ve overheard, you can actually do this. Because you are still a student it would count as bonus credit towards graduation and it’s is only for three classes. I would even be willing to wave the next test, worth thirty-five percent of your grade, as an automatic hundred”. 

Danny blinks, “you’d, you’d do that? Why? What about Val? She’s a hunter?”. 

Mr. Lancer shakes his head, “she’s not informed, and saying she hates ghosts is an understatement. Teachers, we’re supposed to be somewhat unbiased. Ms. Gray doesn’t know that word when it comes to ghosts. You, despite having grown up with two of the head researchers and hunters behind the belief of ghosts being evil, speak of ghosts the same as you do humans. And Daniel, she has a future with the GIW. You, on the other hand, don’t have anything planned. And I know you, you could never do something you didn’t have some kind of passion for”. 

Danny grumbles, Val’s hatred for ghosts had pretty well destroyed any chance of their relationship working out. Her hated matter more than her love. _‘I do hope she changes someday though. Especially since I do still like her’_

_**‘?’** _

_‘Val’s a girl I dated once, I’m pretty sure ghosts date too, and generally in the same way. She’s also sorta part of my home in a way. But her hatred for all things ecto makes it pretty well impossible to really be close. Especially now’_

Danny shifts, responding to Mr. Lancer as his Core makes a sad whine in his head, “you’re not wrong. But I’m not really super knowledgable, just have a passing knowledge. Hard not to, especially when I help my parents with most of their stuff. Though it kind of seems like you’re trying to sell me on this. Why?”. 

Mr. Lancer sighs, “because I care. I want you, clumsy as you are, to succeed. And this is a way to help with that. It will help you towards whatever you wish to do in life. Teaching a certified professional program looks good on any resume”, smiling with twinklings of mischief, “and you never know, you might like teaching. We are known to be rather odd, so you’d fit right in”.

Danny rubs his neck, his parents would be over the moon if he did this, his sister would put it in her thesis paper, his friends would mock him but with underlining relief and pride, and he would technically have achieved something. Mr. Lancer puts his hands on the desk, “before you make any kind of decision, I feel the need to point out that you saying you help your parents out a lot, means you’re a lab assistant; that requires a lot more than passing knowledge. It’s very likely that many things that seem common knowledge and just obvious to you, are not. How about I give you a project to build a questionnaire to see how much the student body knows, author kept anonymous of course”. 

Danny blinks, ‘surely people aren’t stupid enough to think ghosts have human blood or pulses? Right? And, like, Cores and ecto-fields are super obvious...right?’ Now Danny’s downright curious. Danny grumbles, “yah just had to make me curious”, rolling his eyes at Mr. Lancer's slight smirk and his Core bubbling a little, “okay fine. Questionnaire thing. If, and only if, it turns out everyone is that uniformed then I might, might, do it”. 

Mr. Lancer smiles and leans back in his chair, “wonderful, I think you’ll be surprised. Thirty questions and why not throw in some bonus hard questions. Only based off of what you know off the top of your head. And I expect an answer sheet in your own words as well”. 

Danny blinks and groans, pushing up off the desk and rubbing his head, “yeah okay, sweet Zone”. _‘What did I just get myself into? Goddamnit’_

Danny rolls his eyes at even more bubbling as he rushes to meet up with his friends in his second-period class. 

Glaring at Tucker as he sits down, “you dick. I now have to make a fucking ghost knowledge test for everyone to take”. Tucker practically slams his face into his desk as he wheezes in laughter. Lifting his head back up, “so gonna tell me all the answers?”. 

Danny flips him off, “go eat dirt. I’m gonna make damn sure the hard ones are shit you don’t know just to piss you off”. His Core vibrates, likely showing Its approval of this plan. 

Sam shakes her head, “sooo no one is going to know then?”. 

Danny, rolling his eyes, “bonus questions are apparently required. The point is to be really hard”. Tucker just wheezes harder and slaps his hand on his desk exaggeratedly and repeatedly. 

By the time lunch comes around Danny is just feeling done, and he can’t help but glance at the skies longingly. _‘I think night flying is going to become a nightly habit’_ Sighing fondly at the happy humming in his head and soft vibrating in his chest. Tucker pokes him, “dude are you just gonna wear sweaters all the fucking time now? That’s gonna suck when it heats up”. 

Danny shrugs, “Tuck, I can’t just walk around in anything thin. People will notice my chest being a freaking light....even if it looks kinda cool”. Danny smirks at making the slightly sad whine change to a faint hum. 

Tucker rolls his eyes but groans, pointing to the cafeteria doors, “pain at ten o'clock, looks like someone’s a man on a mission. Huston, prime pain tolerance”. 

Danny snorts, “this is Huston telling Roger that pain is all I know”. Danny blinks rapidly, realising an issue _‘hey hey, remember the no making sound or doing things to or with my body?’_

**_‘Yes, ?’_ **

_‘Well, you’re about to get a practice in restraint. I’m probably about to get attacked, so if I’mma dodge shit I have to do it like a human. No pretzel arm shit. And no zapping him or the ground. And no growling or bass boosting’_

Danny groans at first at his Cores whine, then at Dash shouting, “FENTON!”.

_‘Seriously, keep quiet and don’t say anything. I’m his favourite so you are gonna have to get used to him assaulting me. I know you’re protective and shit, but the best way you can protect me here is by not getting yourself noticed’_

Dash slams his hands down on the trio's table, “guess who has to use the crappy footballs because _SOMEONE_ broke the good one!”. 

Danny grumbles, “oh grow up you big oaf, like come on-”. Dash grabs Danny’s shirt and yanks him up off the ground, Danny gritting his teeth and seriously hoping Dash does not look down his shirt. Forcing the rest of his body to stay rather loose and limp as to not give Dash the reaction he’s looking for. 

“The answer is me and the someone is you, Fentoenail”, Dash practically spits in Danny’s face before lifting Danny up higher, then tossing and flipping Danny in the air to slam his back against the table; Sam and Tucker quickly yanking their food trays out of the way, Tucker batting Danny’s of the table as well. 

But they both blink and Dash drops his arms to the side, as Danny shoots his hand out, out of new fight instinct, fingers curling around the corner of the table. Danny spins himself, using the strength in his arm alone, to land with his feet on the table. Holding a straight face the whole time, his other arm snapping out to grab his tray out of the air; promptly flicking it into Dash’s stomach. 

Dash falls onto his ass with a grunt, wincing before gaping back up at Danny; who’s looking down at Dash and forcing his face to not look surprised. 

The entire cafeteria is silent and no one moves, Danny flicks his eyes around; certain some are just shocked he ‘got back at’ Dash, while others are shocked about him actually showing some kind of coordination. Swallowing, Danny uncurls his one hands fingers from around the table and stands up, before hopping off the table. Blatantly ignoring everyone, as he walks over to his spilled food. Picking up the open, and now only half-filled, pudding cup, deadpanning and speaking like this is the only thing that mattered, “you spilled my pudding....”. And very pointedly ignoring the near-violent vibrating in his chest. 

Dash stands up, glares a bit but then just walks off. Shoving some tenth-grade band geek off their seat as he goes. The band geeks grumbling basically restarting the normal chatter of the cafeteria. While Tucker and Sam practically push Danny out the doors. 

“Dude, what the fuck? How the fuck, I mean that was goddamn awesome...but how?”.

“Um yeah, Danny. I’m all for defending yourself and the weaker, but actually going on the attack, even a little, was a bit much”, Sam points at Danny, “plus isn’t your thing literally letting him kick the crap out of you so that he leaves everyone else alone?”. 

Danny rubs his neck as his Core manages to vibrate even more aggressively, which is starting to feel more than a little uncomfortable, **_‘let hurt! ?’._**

_‘I can take it, others can’t. I’m used to getting injuries and sporting bruises so I hardly care where they come from. Most of the other kids that he aims for can barely handle being pinched. None the less getting punched or body slammed into a table. While I’ll just shrug it off. I do more damage to myself whenever I accidentally open my locker straight into my face‘._

_**‘Protect? To protect?’**_ Danny sighs to himself at his Core vibrating a bit less. While Sam and Tucker glare at him.

_‘Yes, exactly. Sometimes ya gotta get hurt so others don’t get hurt. Take the blow. And quick question, do I or you have some sort of fighting instinct?’_

**_‘Yes. Threat must fight’_ **

_‘Heh, most humans flee or freeze. I normally don’t have any kind of fight or flight instinct. I literally normally don’t react at all. Today I had to actually force myself limp instead of punching him. Which for me, is weird’_

Danny clears his throat, “guys, that wasn’t actually entirely intentional. I wasn’t kidding earlier about the little guy pretty well giving me instincts”. 

Tucker bends over laughing, Sam shaking her head with a smile, “well couldn’t you have gone with the second option? Like fleeing? Or anything that didn’t involve assaulting the dirtbag and making yourself look like a fucking acrobat?”

Everyone blinks at Danny as his Core whines and makes an overly aggressive deep bass-boosted sound, **_‘NO. Weak. Not weak’._**

Danny chuckles, “okay first off, that was the third option. The first was kicking his knees in, the second was punching him in the face. So all things considered tossing a piece of plastic at him was tame. Second, fleeing is, apparently, not allowed and weak. Ghost instinct is just fight, no flight. Common sense, which isn’t really a Core thing, is what picks the flight option”, shrugging, “but that’s only if the opponent or threat or whatever is way stronger and obviously so”. 

Sam pokes Danny’s chest, “well you can’t just go hitting Dash, or Kwan for that matter, every time they go after you. So show some restraint”. 

Danny throws his hands up mockingly, “I’ve never had any fight/flight shit. So go chug blood or something. Plus ghosts actually have far stronger and more true instincts than humans. Squashing them isn’t exactly a thing”. 

**_‘Good. Good have’_ **

_‘And floating is great to have, still startling at first. Good shit can suck sometimes or be starling. Problem here is this ‘fight’ instinct goes pretty well opposite to how I normally react to shit. It’s kind of like someone or thing jacking control of my body. And not in the same way as what you do. I can’t talk to an instinct or request for it to chill out’_

Danny snorts before shaking some frost off the chest of his sweater, chuckling, “little shit”. Tucker smirks, “did ya ask for It to chill or something”. Danny nods, making Tucker chuckle as they head to fifth. 

Thankfully the rest of the day is rather uneventful, though Danny gets lots of strange looks and side-eyes. Danny grumbles at his locker, “you’d think I did punch him instead of just throwing some plastic”. Jumping a bit at Tucker’s voice and slamming the locker door shut, not really making anything of the sudden sharp pain; or Little Star sending him static, “dude if you fucking punched the guy, you’d be getting mobbed by the nerds and geeks, and the entire football team would be stalking you. Also dude, I guess even ghost instincts can’t stop you from brutalising yourself”. 

“Huh?”.

Tucker facepalms, “your poor fucking fingers”. Danny goes to scratch his hair, straight up bending the metal out on his locker door as he pulls his fingers out. Blinking at the sound and looking at his hand, two fingers bent totally wrong, “oh, whoops”. _‘And nows the time to see if pretzeling my bones will actually fix broken bones’_

Getting more static, **_‘!!!’._**

_‘You’ve been warned I’m horrible for accidental self-injury!’_

Shaking his head at the whine while Tucker pokes him, “I think It’s giving you shit. You shit”. 

Sam walks up and stares at Danny’s fingers, looking to the locker before speaking, “as It should be. Did you just rip your fingers out from under the locker? Seriously? You damn moron”, Sam stops and blinks as Danny liquifies his two fingers, them flopping down like wet noodles. “And how does that help anything?”. Danny just gives a shit-eating grin as his fingers return to normal, no longer broken. 

Tucker claps him on the back, “damn dude. That’s a fucking blessing for your self-destructive ass”. Sam just grimaces. 

Danny snaps his previously broken fingers, both to disturb them and because he just remembers wanting Tucker to stab him. His Core bubbling slightly over him messing with them, though clearly still not too happy with him. “That reminds me! I pretty much had to lecture the little guy about dodging like a human, with the whole Dash thing. Wanna see It’s idea of dodging?”. 

Sam pinches her nose, “dear Zone no”, but promptly facepalms as they walk outside and Tucker straight-up whips a rock at Danny, full force; which isn’t really much for Tucker. Danny’s shoulder splitting in half while Danny grins wide for only a second. Before bursting into laughter and Core crackling, as Tucker gapes and shakes his head. “Dude, you’d probably give Dash a fucking heart attack”. 

_‘One...two.....and..three!’_

Danny starts laughing again as Tucker just whips rock after rock at him. Curling up on the ground with Tucker going up and trying to kick him, resulting in Danny completely splitting around his stomach. Tucker motions exaggeratedly at Danny as his two halves snap back together, “how the fuck does that even work! This is some absurdist bullshit!”. Danny only laughs harder, though splitting in half was not something he expected to happen and was a little weirded out. 

Walking into his house, Maddie sticking her head out of the kitchen, “cold soup?”. Danny tilts his head back, “ugh, I literally had chicken nuggets hotter than Zone for lunch. I can have hot food”. 

Maddie puts her hands on her hips, “and how do you know that’s safe, sweetie? For the Ghost Zone Core?”. 

Danny rolls his eyes as he walks into the kitchen, eyeballing the, decidedly not steaming, bowl of soup, “I think I would notice if it was a problem”. 

Jack tilts his head as Danny stares at his food, not exactly feeling like eating cold cheese soup. Jack muttering, “so you can feel It?”. Danny nods as he pokes at the soup with his spoon, grimacing a bit at the thick film on top. _‘This is disgusting. I think I’d rather lick my pudding off the cafeteria floor over eating this’_

**_‘Make warm?’_ **

_‘Somehow I doubt they’ll actually let me heat it up....’_

Danny facepalms while both his parents jump a little, as Danny’s Core zaps the soup. Superheating it to the point that it explodes upward, spattering extremely hot soup all over the kitchen and Danny. Danny slams his face into the soup bowl, breaking it. 

Jack quickly flicks bits of nearly boiling soup off himself, “you okay Danny-boy!”. Danny just groans from the table, before lifting his face up and dragging a hand down his face; skin ice cold and mist steaming off where the soup had contacted him. 

‘ ** _Bad_**?’

_‘Oooh yeah, just how many volts did you just zap the food with?’_

‘ _ **Medium**_ ’

_‘Aim for low or really low, next time. Thanks for the skin cooling though’_

Danny leans his head back over the back of the chair and facepalms, his Core whining but ending on a faint hum. Maddie walks up and picks up a piece of the bowl, “you need to be more careful Danny”, blinking at the warmth of the piece, “was It trying to...heat up the food?”. 

Danny snorts and gets up, “I’m just gonna have some fruit”. 

Danny knows full well he’s being stared at as he rummages around the fridge, eventually grabbing two apples and a banana. Danny just points at the stairs as he heads up, paying acute attention to his parents' conversation as he closes the door. _‘Hearing is for sure better’_

“Do you think It was just reacting to what Danny wanted or that It actually choose to do that?”

“Oh! He must have some control over It! The other option’s just impossible of course. But! Who knows what he could do if he can make It do stuff!”

“Yes, well. I don’t think he’ll intentionally do that. Why would anyone intentionally do something so ghostly? Especially someone like Danny, we’ve raised him to know how evil and disgusting such things are. And what if that damages It? Or drains Its ectoplasm?” 

Danny grumbles, annoyed and disgusted with them, as he clicks the door shut. Not wanting to hear the rest of their crap, especially since his Core is making an annoyed and insulted deep bass-boosted sound. Flopping down at his desk and flicking open his laptop, “no, someone like me will actively use them. Because unlike some bigoted cold soup serving scientists, I can recognise sentience and feelings when I see them”. Danny flicks on his glow just to prove a point as he starts making up questions for the ecto test. 


	7. And Hell Frosts Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 14: Breath

Danny taps the printed papers on his desk, “that was just as annoying as I expected”. Before folding them and shoving them in his back pocket. 

Taking the steps two at a time, fully intending to get gone as quick as possible. Both ‘cause he has to hand shit in and to avoid his parents peppering him with questions or trying to test something on him. 

Shoving a piece of untoasted bread into his mouth as he makes himself some cereal. “Morning Danny-boy! you’re up early?”.

Danny grunts in response, sitting down at the table. Setting the bread, with a bite taken out of it, down on the table, “yeah, teach wants to talk ‘bout that ectology trial class. Being your guys’s kid and all”. 

“Oh! Glad you’re getting involved but I’m certain we’re not too busy for them to have asked us?”.

Danny rubs his neck, draining the milk from the bowl before replying, “it’s for students and I’m a student. So student perspective”. Jack nods, accepting the cover-up.

Danny flicks his eyes behind him, catching something out of the corner of his eye moving towards him, as he’s putting away his bowl. Arm jerking back and catching it on instinct; only to yelp and drop it. Spinning around and looking at the gooey ball on the floor, while his Core makes loud static and deep bass-boosted sounds. **_‘!!!!’_**

Looking up at Jack, who looks, of all things, excited, “what the Zone?! Isn’t there supposed to be a house rule about not getting me to test something before school?”. Danny subtly moves his throbbing and hot hand behind his back, able to feel the cold steam coming off it. 

Maddie sticks her head in the doorway, pretty well telling Danny she’s the one who threw or shot that at him. “That sounded like it hurt sweetie?”. The scientific inquisitive tone seriously putting him off. 

**_‘MEAN, !!!’_ **

“‘M fine”, ‘yes it damn well did hurt and yeah, definitely mean, but I’d just like to get out of here at this point’. Grabbing up his bread with his other hand and trying to sidestep around Maddie to leave. Her quickly grabbing and holding up his wrist, only for his Core to shock her. But she doesn’t let go and inspects Danny’s red and steaming hand. Fiddling with each of his fingers, muttering down at them, “so anti-ecto stuff does hurt him...just less. Curious. Cold must be soothing it”. 

_‘This was supposed to be worse? Seriously? Excuse you but I actually need my hands. Preferably in working order’_

Danny yanks his hand away, his Core zapping at her again, making low growling sounds and vibrating violently all the while. Danny takes a rather aggressive bite out of his bread and stalks out of the house. Shoving his hurt hand into his sweater pocket, trying to downplay it even if that hurt it more. _‘I’d take broken bones over this. You okay?’_

‘ ** _MEAN_** ’

_‘Heh, yeah I know. But they did kind of have a reason, humans aren’t normally hurt by anti-ecto stuff’, flexing his fingers slightly, ‘but since you’re here, it was genuinely debatable if that stuff could hurt me or you. From the sounds of her muttering, while it seems to affect me, it affects me less than it should a ghost. So by that logic, if someone or thing tries to hurt you, being in me will protect you some’._

Danny grumbles, “I highly doubt that’s why they ‘tested’ that though. Were probably wanting to see how interconnected we are or whatever”. 

‘ _ **Hurt**_ ’. 

_‘Yeah, I know. I have no clue how long this is supposed to take to heal. But are you okay?’._

**_‘Yes. HOME hurt’._ **

Danny pulls out his hand and flips it over some, flexing his fingers again; blowing some cold air on it and pleased that actually makes it feel a little better, _‘still seems so. You’ve probably never encountered anti-ecto stuff, and it’s never been able to hurt me before; so I guess we’re both in the dark on this. But, from what I do know, just burning the ‘flesh’ is a really mild reaction. Most of their stuff is made to dissolve, pierce or immobilise’._ Danny taps his chin, “that one, the ball, pretty sure that was the Goosorption. Which is supposed to dissolve and absorb both sentient and raw ectoplasm. So it definitely affected me less”, chuckling and looking down at his hand, “considering how my hand is very much solid and there was no ectoplasm, or whatever, absorbed out”. 

_‘Come to think of it. Can you tell if there even is ectoplasm in me? Other than what’s in or around you of course’_

**_‘Yes, everywhere. Less than should. Home ???, low good?’_ **

Danny snorts and looks at the sky, “weird might be an understatement buddy. But, um, humans don’t normally have _any_ ectoplasm. Heck, anything beyond a few small particles is really bad, even deadly for humans. Ectoplasm being everywhere in me should have made me keel over instantly. You’re probably the only reason it’s not doing me harm”. Danny tilts his head sideways, laughing even though his Core makes a high pitched whine, “now now, chill out. Okay, I think you’ve functionally made me able to handle ghost stuff. Maybe even healthy, good, for me. And at the same time, I’ve given you human durability, reducing the effect of anti-ecto stuff. Also pretty sure I’m effectively making ghost sensors unable to sense you”. _‘So I think we can safely assume, I can handle ghost everything and you can handle human. But also that stuff that hurts ghosts or humans will hurt us, just less than they should. If I dare to go to extremes, maybe things that should kill ghosts or humans will only seriously hurt. Which, yay for another mortality crisis’_

Danny smiles as that seems to be enough to get his Core to bubble, effectively pacified. 

Danny goes to open the school doors, only for them to be locked, which they shouldn’t be at this hour, “goddamnit....wait a second”. Danny smirks, _‘hey? Intangibility? So I can just freaking walk through the door?’_. Danny chuckles, Core bubbling alongside, feeling like he’s being incredibly sneaky, at the fast vibrating spreading over all of him. Smirking as he does indeed walk straight through the door. 

Turning around to look at the door, “breaking and entering, minus the breaking. Nice”. Chuckling at the louder bubbling _‘remember, school. Gotta be quiet’,_ chuckling again at the forced sounding bubbling in his head. Muttering, “baby”, as he makes his way to the teachers' lounge. 

Scrunching his eyebrows and smirking as he makes a fainter and slower vibrating spread over him, looking at his invisible hand. _‘Look at me, I'm learning!’._ Danny sticks his head through the door and looks around, while his Core hums happily in his head. Smiling at the sight of his teacher and deciding to dick around some, quickly walking over and blowing cold air in his face. Biting his tongue as Mr. Lancer jerks up and shivers.

Stepping back into the hallway, hand over his mouth and restraining snickers. Knocking on the door unnecessarily loud, and giving Mr. Lancer a shit-eating grin as he opens the door. “Did you just assume I’d be here, Mr. Fenton?”

“Where else would you be? It’s not like you have a life”.

“My job is my life, as should be everyone's goal. Doing what I love and helping young minds is worth any missed socialisation”. 

Danny snorts, “whatever you say Mr. Lancer, whatever you say”. Danny grabs the papers from his pocket, “anyway, here. Something tells me you want to talk about this so.....”. 

“Well first off, what happened to your hand?”.

_‘Better to lie’_ , “self-destructive tendencies joined me in rising early”. 

Mr. Lancer shakes his head but motions for Danny to follow him inside. “Now we could do this in my classroom. But I know how interesting and sneaky it can feel to be in a teacher's only space. And it is a lounge after all. Besides, you are acting as a teacher, in a sense”. 

Danny rolls his eyes but points at the coffee machine, “you guys get free coffee?”. Mr. Lancer chuckles but nods, while Danny pours himself some; black of course.

Danny blows only a little on it, _‘rather not accidentally freeze it or something’_ watching the rim get a little later of frost and grumbling after taking a sip, “this is some shit coffee”, while Mr. Lancer reads over the questions Danny’s made and the answers. “Well, it is free Daniel. And while I did ask for hard bonus questions, this last one is painful to read”. 

Danny snickers, “y’all should get an espresso machine. And Tuck was being an arse, so it’s made to bug him”. 

Mr. Lancer sighs wistfully, “that would be very nice, wouldn’t it. Though I prefer tea myself. And at least you had a reason. I really should have expected as much, you’ve always been quite the ‘prankster’”. 

Danny shrugs, “most just call me a little shit. Sooooo. I’m guessing y’all are just gonna do formating and make copies. Hand shit ‘round in your classes?”. 

Mr. Lancer nods, “and Ms. Revlon’s as well. Every student that doesn’t have me, has her”, tapping the papers, “obviously you’ll have to take it as well to avoid suspicions and you might be surprised at the, probably, less than stellar marks. Many of these I don’t even know the answer to. Though I expect Ms. Manson, Mr. Foley and Ms. Gray will do better than most”.

“Part of me wants to hope you’re wrong, the other part has long since lost faith in the intelligence of my classmates. And humanity for that matter”, smirking, “and I never pegged you for the sneaky type, Mr. Lancer”. 

“To deal with students like you and convince people to genuinely do their work, I have to be. Not to mention dealing with the occasional political issue our dear principal decidedly ignores”.

**_‘Hit it’_ **

Danny chuckles and shakes his head, “well I’m going to go off and actually have a social life”. Refilling his cup and grabbing two more for his friends, sandwiching them between his arm and chest. 

“See you on the flip side Mr. Fenton”.

Danny cringes as he walks out, _‘he’d be more cool if he stopped trying to be ‘hip’._ _Oh and, humans solve shit with words. Not their fists....well okay, most do. That or we just blow each other up. But most human things will be made worse, not solved, by hitting’_ Danny chuckles at the slightly annoyed whining. 

Danny pokes Tucker, “so guess who just spent the morning pondering my possible indestructibility”. Sam smirks, “ahh nothing like the smell of existential crisis in the morning.....and coffee? And nice hand, what can’t insta fix whatever?”. 

Tucker goes to grab one, but Danny turns away, “it’s teacher coffee, so beg”. Looking at Sam, “ecto-burn, explain later”.

Tucker makes a pathetic puppy dog face so Danny relinquishes the cups to them. Tucker cries, “why doesn’t she have to beg! And fuck dude this is horrible, and kinda cold”. 

“Because I’m not that stupid Tuck, and I know”, Danny smirks as he shotguns the rest of his cup. Both of them grimacing at him. “Cold’s probably my fault though”. Danny points at Sam, “and you’d be proud. Little Star thinks Lancer should punch politics and politicians”. 

Tucker snorts, coffee coming out of his nose, making Danny smirk and his Core bubble. “Dude-”, hack, “-I would pay to-”, hack, “-see that. And shut-”, hack, “-up”. 

While Sam smiles over the rim of her cup, “Lancer actually doing that would be stranger that the state of your chest”, poking his chest and quirking an eyebrow, “shit you’re cold”. Danny just shrugs and gestures to his burnt hand slightly. 

**_‘Strange good’_ **

_‘Yup, especially if Sam’s the one implying we’re strange’_

Danny smiles slightly at the pleased hum in his head, while they head to class. Tucker snorting, “you’re your own ice pack”. 

Danny uses his (not burnt)hand to restrain a smirk as Mr. Lancer hands out the papers, “now as I’m sure you all are aware, ghosts are a constant and powerful threat. And I’m sure you all are also well aware of the ectology class requirement that’s being implemented in schools”, Mr. Lancer holds up the one copy of the answer sheet, “so you are being tested on your ecto-knowledge. Though I have no doubt some of you will do well. This is more to see just how much you all already know”. 

Star sticks up her hand, “will this affect our grades?”. While Dash scoffs, “of course some freaks are going to do well. Passing freaky tests is all being a freak is good for”. 

Danny turns his head around, “oh bite me”, and snaps his teeth shut loudly; his Core making an amused warble. Before Mr. Lancer hushes everyone so they can start their tests. 

Unsurprisingly Danny’s done first, especially seeing as he didn’t really have to pay much attention to the questions. _‘Ah the benefits of having written it myself and thus having the answer sheet in my head’_

Danny smirks at Sam and Tucker as they join him outside the class, also having finished earlier than everyone else. Tucker pokes him, “screw you for that last one, you ass. You just had to be graphic and explicit”. 

Sam smirks, “I thought it was pretty funny. All that medical nitty gritty”. Pushing Danny, “though did you really have to with the ghost hunger stuff? I know that’s a cultural thing and even a need for some, but that doesn’t mean I want to think about it”. 

Danny smirks, Core bubbling in his head, “twas your guys’s fault I had to make that, so suffering is what you get”.

Sam rolls her eyes, “you'll thank us. You really would be suited for it”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, Core bubbling slightly. “Hey, just be glad I didn’t put in the really weird shit”. 

“Do I even want to know dude?”. 

Danny chuckles darkly, fully intending for it to sound kind of creepy and dark, “depends on how masochistic you’re currently feelin’ Tuck.....”, shrugging, “but anyways....y’all won’t believe the shit I’ve been pulling”. Tapping on his chest, feeling his Core pulse in response, “the amount of shit this little guy can do is freaking crazy. But hella fun”. 

“Oh?”, Tuck raises one eyebrow before poking him, “come on! Speak you stupid bastard”.

Danny chuckles, “well outside of the flying shit I just pulled on y’all. There’s the fucking invisibility thing, which oddly feels similar to intangibility”. Pointing at Sam, “which yes, I totally used to sneak into the teachers' lounge”. 

Tucker raises his hand for a high five, Danny promptly giving it to him.

' ** _Useful_** '

_'Very, if a bit weird but hey! Weird is my whole life so it’s cool. Also way sneaker a thing to do than picking fights or just kicking in a damn door or some shit’_

Tucker pokes Danny, “Dude, nice facial expressions still fucking weird It talks to ya. Cool though”.

Danny chuckles, patting at his chest, “eh I’ve gotten used to it actually. It’s not like the little guy’s super talkative. More noisy than anything else”. Looking down his shirt, “the glow is more worrying honestly. Can’t have fuckers seeing that shit”. 

Danny jerks to the side as a shoe flies past his head, eyes feeling fizzy for a second. Whipping his head around and groaning _‘of course it’s Dash. Surprise surprise'_

**_‘Attack!!!!’_ **

_‘No not really. It’s just a damn shoe and an idiot’_

Sam pokes him while he flips Dash off, “what? Just going to assume you failed, like, the easiest fucking test ever? That should be obvious but you still fucked up?”. 

Tucker snickers but instantly the three book it as Dash shouts, “only losers freaks know about that crap! And you aren’t supposed to dodge you damn freak!”. 

Sam pokes Danny as they’re jogging and Danny’s giggling, “Danny, your eyes fucking glowed...”. 

Danny tilts his head, “they did feel kinda fizzy for a sec there”. 

**_‘Moved ectoplasm. Flared to surface. Threat’_ **

Danny nods, yup, sounded about right. Most ghosts eyes tended to flare up brighter when they were ticked off or physically saying ‘back off pal or I’ll cut you’. Could straight up steam whatever colour if the ghost was really fuming. “Not hard to be annoyed with Dash”, focusing on his friends, “what colour?”. 

“Freaking ecto-green, dude”, Tucker shrugs, “basic as Hell but that is the Zone’s main colour, ain’t it? Makes sense”. Danny smirks and nods. 

The three duck around a corner, Danny looking around quickly before making himself all vibratie and pulling them with him through the wall. _‘I can spread it to others just like a ghost! Fucking Zone that’s cool’_ Earning pleased humming from his Core. 

Tucker yelping, “Holy shit that feels weird!”. Before patting himself down after Danny returns them to normal a safe distance away from the bully, “dude, that was awesome. Ghost powers huh? Just fucking full-on”, tilting his head, “you _sure_ you’re still alive? And don’t just _look_ human?”. Danny gives him a very dirty look, “oh I’m sure. I checked my pulse, asshole”. Comically handing over his wrist just for them to check themselves. Which they obviously do. Danny pointing his thumb over his shoulder, “anyway, now that we’ve confirmed I _do not_ need to have an ‘am I dead’ crisis, class?”. 

Sam shrugs and smirks, “‘am I kinda a ghost’ is nearly the same”. 

Danny points at her as they push their way into class and head to their seats, “I have a ghost organ and ectoplasm, but that’s it. I’m still not a ghost”, shrugging, “just kinda ghostly”. 

Tucker pokes him and leans over, whispering, “so wait, you’ve actually got ectoplasm everywhere now? Guessin’ your eyes going all green glowy was just the ‘plasm showing”. 

Danny leans his head back and nods, “the tendrils It stuck in me -shut the fuck up, not a Zone damned word- were basically pure ectoplasm I think. No clue just _how much_ ecto I’ve got. Am says it’s less than normal”. Tucker snickers anyway, so Danny blows air in his face. Making him jerk back and shake his face off, “fucking brrr dude”. Danny just smirks. 

All three join Danny in smirking, Core bubbling slightly in his head, when Dash comes in and gives them a funny look. Muttering, “sneaky tricky bastard freak. Loser probably thinks he pulled one over on me, I’ll have to beat him down double for that”. 

Danny sighs to himself _‘looks like I’m still his favourite’_

_‘ **Fight** ’_

_‘Zone no, it’s better I’m his fav remember?’_

His Core manages to vibrate in such a way as to give him a bad taste in his mouth **_‘To protect’_ **then giving a low accepting hum, **_‘yes. Protect’_**

Danny was about to smile happily but changes to a groan as his Core adds on **_‘protect AND fight. Protect by fight’_**

_‘I’m not going to be able to convince you, am I?’_

**_‘No. Not weak’_ **

_‘You know, some say self-sacrifice is the strongest thing a person can do. That’s what I do by just letting the prick hit me’_

Danny just sighs and changes to mildly paying attention to the math teacher when his Core faintly makes a bass-boosted sound in his head followed by another low hum. 

* * *

They don’t even get halfway through class before there’s a loud explosion, everyone tilting their heads up as the green ghost alarm light goes off. Danny blinking from actually being able to feel the ectoplasmic energy of the ghost shield as it activates. 

**_‘?????’_ **

_‘Part of the Ghost Protection System. Amity sees more ghosts than other parts of the world. Hence our ‘most haunted city in America’ title. There’s a shield around the school now that’ll keep any ghosts from getting in the school’_

**_‘Ghost near?’_ **

_‘Yup, probably blew something up from the sounds of it. So a less friendly fellow’_

Ms. Remi predictably just tells everyone to get back to work, while Danny scrunches up his eyebrows at the rapid sounding purr sound. Trilling. That was a new one. He’s also got no clue what it means. Not really getting a chance to think on it when his Core seemingly jerks his left arm. 

‘ ** _FIND_** _’_

_‘What? Why? Also, could you not jack control of my body in public like that? Definitely does not help with the whole hiding you thing’_

**_‘WANT. Want child where belong’_ **

Danny chokes at that, barely managing to not respond out loud. _‘CHILD???’_ While his Core trills a bunch more and he can physically feel the thick ectoplasm moving in his limbs. Which fine, is supremely weird. Danny’s confusion doesn’t even get answered as his Core speaks up again while pulsing a bit harshly, **_‘COMING’_**

Danny looks around and squints out the window. _‘Coming? Like, coming here? Can the ghost sense you? Are they coming after us?’_

**_‘Here yes’_** and making an unsure sounding whine and wavering trill. 

Danny screwing up his face as his throat feels very cold, before pulling his (only slightly still ecto-burnt)hand in front of his mouth; icy mist pluming out. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t be in public right now; especially with his Core jerking his legs and toes now. **_‘FIND. WANT’_**

_‘Fucking Zone, okay. Still don’t get why or the freaking **child** thing’_. Sticking his hand up while Sam and Tucker are eyeing him and the bit of icy mist still lingering in the air with serious ‘wtf’ faces. “Can I go to the bathroom?”, trying very pointedly to not seem desperate and keep the whole jerking legs things unnoticed. The teacher thankfully waves him off, though giving pointed ‘no, you can’t go with him’ glares at his friends. 


	8. The Better Of Two ‘Evils’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 19: Doors

Danny checking his phone as it vibrates while slipping into a secluded nook and flickering out of visible sight. Seeing the update from his folks:

‘NEW UNKNOWN: strong, good at evasion, and capable of planning’

With an attached picture for Danny to add to his ghost files. Showing a muscular shirtless ghost that looks like a mix between a goth and a pirate with a cape. 

Danny blinks, muttering, “that is _not_ a child", while letting his Core float him up and through the ceiling. Danny looking around while floating invisibly above the school. 

_**‘Yes child. All ghosts child’** _

Danny screws up his face, _‘Uh, no? That is clearly an adult ghost_ ’. Blinking at the green ghost shield and moving his hand to poke it. Frowning a bit at it feeling like solid pulsing glass, rather than going through it like a normal human would. _‘Heh, that’s gonna be an issue’._

Pulling back the static ‘feathers’ feeling of his glow from around his fingers. Definitely glad his fingers go through it without any issues this time, sure he could feel the tingle of it a little and it seems like he’s actually absorbing it a little; but that’s it.

**_‘CHILD. Grown yes, child still. Adult child’_ **

_‘Someone can’t be both an adult and a child, that doesn’t make-’_ Danny facepalms _‘Oh wait, right, you’re the Core of the entire Ghost Zone. Which is what makes the Zone’s ectoplasm and ghosts technically. So are you saying ghosts are, like, your children?’_

Danny actually jerks in the air from the very loud pleased humming **_‘CHILD YES’._**

Danny flicks on his glow again on the parts of his hand outside of the shield, using that as an anchor to hold himself up with while turning off the glow to the rest of him. _‘Holy Shit. Alright, you’re gonna have to excuse me being a little freaked by that. ‘Cause you’re part of me and that kinda means I just randomly acquired billions of children. Sweet Zone. What the fuck. Am I a dad now?’_ Shaking his head, “okay, I am _not_ thinking about that crisis right now. Oh ghouls”. Smirking on being able to sneak past the shield and sit on the outside of it.

Glaring at the air over his Core crackling at him before the ‘feathers’ of his glow yank and pulling him to fly off in the direction of the suburb where his house is. Which is definitely worrying. Danny able to sort of feel a vibration in the back of his consciousness in the same direction. _‘Huh, can you sorta sense where the ghost is? Generally?’._ Nodding to himself and tensing in case of attack when Little Star just responds with low approving hum and fill his chest with energy some. 

* * *

Danny has to physically grip onto the side of some random house to keep his Core from being able to physically launch him at the ghost. It’s more than a little uncomfortable feeling the ‘feathers’ of his glow trying to yank at the air against his will really. _‘Could you cut that out? I get you wanna go to that ghost, but I’d like to at least have some clue what the fuck he’s doing’._ Especially considering how he was poking around his house. _‘Actually kinda seems like he’s lookin’ for something actually. Zone Core maybe?’._

Putting a hand over his chest and frowning, he’s not really able to help the slight protectiveness; but that does seem to be enough to get his Core to calm down a little, though pulsing seemingly naggingly at him and trilling. 

Danny’s frown only deepens at the ghost pulling out some tech thingy that allows him to by-pass the houses' ghost shield. _‘Oh what the fuck, that can’t be good. Stay quiet’._

His Core hums acceptingly. ‘ ** _Bad_** ’. Danny just nods curtly while floating invisibly over. Turning off his glow to by-pass the shield himself. 

Danny watches the ghost snoop around the lab _‘oh yeah, definitely after the Core. First the G.I.W. twats, now some ghost’._ His Core wiggles a little in his chest while he takes advantage of intangibility to soundlessly grab one of the many ecto-weapons in the house. 

_**‘?’** _

_‘Weapon, to fight. In case he can tell you’re in me and attacks. Normally I run away from attacking ghosts, but well.....’_ not even bothering to finish his comment while clicking off the gun's safety. His Core instantly butting in **_‘no flee. No weak’._**

Danny resists chuckling and flicks his glow back on to float and phase through the roof. His Core making a pitch heightening whistle in his head and vibrating a bit aggressively. _‘Chill, I’m not fleeing or whatever. FentonWorks is a well-known hunters house and there’s a ghost effectively breaking in. Totally reasonable for an armed someone -that someone being me- to go confront his ass. But I can’t just go and suddenly become visible in front of the guy. That would be ridiculously suspicious’,_ smirking, _‘in short, I’m attempting at tricking the guy into thinking I’m just some regular human. While also being my typical protective self and protecting my Little Star’_. Feeling quite pleased with himself over the unimpressed vibrating changing to affectionate nuzzling. 

**_‘Hide more?’_ **

Danny nods while popping back into visibility, ignoring the discomfort and automatic distaste the twisting up feeling causes. Blinking and instantly feeling slightly worried, _‘hey, question, I’m not going to be able to use you, the ghost abilities, while you’re all curled up, am I?’_ He frowns and takes the faint sad whine as confirmation, though patting his chest at the faint pulse that’s probably the little guy trying to be comforting. A ghost would probably be really bothered by this after all. The fact that he felt bothered was probably concerning, he might be getting a little attached here. Eh, that’s a crisis for some other time. 

Shaking his head at the ever-present-now fullness in his chest increasing near the front. Little Star probably wanted him to hurry up and go down already. _‘Fine fine geez. Going **towards** ghosts isn’t really what I ever do. This is fucking weird for me’_. Rolling his eyes over the slight bubbling feeling, manning up and pushing in the lab door.

Landing nosily on the bottom and leaving his arms limp so it seems like this is somewhat normal for him and like he isn’t bothered in the slightest. “The fuck you think you’re doing?”. 

The ghost whirls around and gives him a hard look before smirking. _‘Probably thinks I’m not a threat. Which **would** normally be a fairly reasonable assumption. I’m not exactly impressive looking’._ Not like his freakishly massive dad or fit and constantly heavily armed mom. Heck pretty well everyone, even Tuck, seemed more physically imposing than his skinny poorly dressed ass. The ghost doesn’t even seem bothered by the gun he’s loosely holding. _‘Probably doesn’t think I even know how to use it’._

“Say kid, you wouldn’t happen to have seen a glowing orb laying around by chance. Could make it worth your while”.

Danny glares at him, _‘oh yeah, **definitely** after the Zone Core. Not gonna happen, buddy’._ Crossing his arms though keeping the gun very much noticeable, “can’t say I have. Not like you believe that though”. 

The ghost nods acceptingly, “course not”, and brandishes a blaster of some kind. 

_‘Great, guy doesn’t just rely on natural power. Means he’s probably more dangerous. Wonderful’_

Danny uncrosses his arms and charged up his ecto-gun, cause obviously this is gonna turn into a firefight that he’d honestly rather not be involved in. While the ghost keeps speaking with a smirk, “name’s Bullet, remember that’s who beat your face in kid”, shrugging, “if I don’t kill you, that is”. 

Danny makes a point to chuckle in the face of danger, like usual. “Mine’s Danny, and seeing as my folks haven't managed to off me yet, I seriously doubt you can”. 

Bullet seems slightly amused by that and promptly shoots at Danny without any further warning, which is honestly expected. While Danny makes use of his new agility and -still kinda weird to have- coordination, to avoid the shots. He’s honestly tickled green at even still having that stuff even with his Core all curled up. 

The two exchange a few more shots before Bullet pauses and speaks up again. Danny only pausing too in case the guys got some useful information, he’s much more of an information gather than a fighter. “Better than I expected, kid. Might actually remember you once I’m done here. Might even make for a good story to tell Walker”.

Danny quirks any eyebrow at that, _‘I’ve heard that name before’_. “‘Walker’? As in the ghost warden?”, tilting his head, “runs the BarrenLands Walking Prison, right? You work for him then”. Danny absolutely smirks to himself at Bullet seeming surprised. 

“You know your stuff, kid. I’m the second in command. You should feel honoured”. 

_‘Well, that’s not good. Though hey, I’ve never been wanted by the cops before. That’s kinda cool’_ Danny’s not sure if the slight vibration in his chest is humoured or chastising, both are fairly reasonable options; while he goes back to exchanging shots with a ghost cop. 

Danny’s not even surprised he gets shot, though can’t help smirking over it hurting way less than it should; not to mention actually feeling his skin seemingly absorb the ecto-energy from the shot and subsequent ecto-burn. Though he knows the vibration in his chest is _not_ happy _‘stay hidden. Seriously. I’m fine’._ Then looking to his sweater and grimacing at the burn hole on his sweater. Turning his head to give the ghost a dirty look, “you burned my sweater, asshole”. 

Bullet blinks -or winks, it’s kinda hard to tell with the eyepatch- and glances at his gun, before giving Danny a slightly scrutinising look. 

_‘Okay, maybe not reacting like a person should is a bit suspicious. Though this is going way better than I ever thought it would’._ Danny waves the guy off lazily, “my pain tolerance qualifies as a bit unnerving. You’d probably have to run me over to make me flinch”. _‘Here’s hoping he doesn’t take me up on that, getting run over majorly sucks’._

Danny makes a point to ignore and not seem worried over Bullet fiddling with his eyepatch, while they go back to shooting at each other. _‘I’m so going to have to clean up after this, my folks will seriously wonder what’s up with all the ecto-blast scorch marks otherwise’_. Predictably getting hit again for being distracted. _‘My poor fucking sweater’._

Bullet floats backwards and frowns at him, “you have far more ectoplasm in you than a mortal can survive with”. 

_‘Well shit, stay hidden though, just in case I can worm my way outta this’_ “your point? You try living, and kinda technically working here, and _not_ wind up a bit ecto”, shrugging, “you’re a ghost though, so that might not actually matter”. 

Bullet looks unimpressed, “care to try again. You have a Core”. 

_‘Okay, can’t actually explain that. Dude’s got a way to see the ecto in someone. Still stay hidden though’._ Danny shrugs, “and my folks are scientists willing to experiment with pretty well anything”.

“Walker would point out that experimenting with Cores is against the rules. I’m more curious why you’re not using any ghostly abilities, with a Core you’d be able to”, smirking, “unless you’re hiding it, of course”.

Danny shrugs again, “I’d rather not get dissected, honestly”. Sure his folks _probably_ wouldn’t, but the keyword was ‘probably’. 

Bullet chuckles, clearly not really believing him, “right”; and promptly starts firing at him a fair bit more aggressively. Which of course means Danny is very quickly on the losing side. Again, he is not a fighter. Getting shot into one of the many metal tables; his Core’s probably not going to tolerate this much longer. 

As if to prove that point, the second Bullet manages to grab his arm -even with Danny managing to shoot the guy in the knee in the process- he can feel the twisted up feeling uncoil and his eyes get all fizzy; promptly bending in a way that is just not humanly possible, and kicking Bullet in the face. Danny can’t really help smirking when the guy had tried to go intangible to avoid the kick, but his Core making Danny’s foot intangible too lets the hit connect; totally catching the ghost off guard. His Core bubbling in amusement as well, while Danny shoots Bullet in the stomach; then having to glare at the blinking red empty light on the gun. _‘That’s just my luck. Thanks for that, the intangibility, but uh, making yourself known is probably not going to be a good thing’._

Danny decides fuck it though and just floats to zip up the stairs instead of running up the steps. No way was he going to be able to find another gun in the trashed lab, kitchen though... should be easy enough. Muttering to his Core, “still not fleeing, no getting pissy”. 

**_‘Good. Fight. Send child where belong’_ **

_‘How???’_

His Core not really getting a chance to respond when Bullet comes in, annoyingly dodging a shot from Danny’s newly acquired gun. “That reaction time was beyond mortal, even ghost actually”. 

The two kinda just stare at each other for a bit, Bullet smirking and eventually pointing out what’s probably obvious at this point, “you don’t just know where it is, you _have_ _it_. Or maybe _are it_ , wouldn’t put it past the Realms solidified self to be able to form Its own body”, shrugging, which Danny pointedly does not react to at all, “moulded after whoever It, you, first saw. The hunters' son obviously”. 

_‘Should we just go along with this? I mean, it would be kinda funny and tricky. Plus the less truth he knows the better’_ , he can’t help frowning slightly, _‘and he might want or try removing you from me-’_

**_‘NO. STAY HOME. ARE ONE. Let child believe lie. Trick’_ **

_‘Glad we agree then’._ Then glaring at the ghost, who hasn’t made another attempt at attacking him yet, “why do you care”. 

Bullet smirks, “pretty simple actually. You’re not merely a ball of energy. Meaning Walker can’t just use you for power and control over the Realm”

_‘Alright, absolutely better to **not** reveal you actually **are** a ball of energy in a body rather than a ball of energy forming a body’._ Core humming softly in agreement.

“You’re smart and tricky. Knew enough to hide yourself and lie. Not to mention gather information instead of attacking”, shrugging and actually pocketing his weapon, “though if you’re playing at being the kid of hunters you really should be more trigger happy”.

Danny takes a fair bit off offence at that. Then gets some practice in at referring to himself like he’s not himself; which fine, is kinda hilarious. “Danny’s not the type-”.

_‘Quick, how would you say me not being the kind to be trigger happy? Describe me, minus the home stuff’_

**_‘Not mean. Protective, tricky’_ **

“-Not mean. Protective and-”, smirking, which he probably shouldn’t do, “- tricky”. 

Bullet looks like he doesn’t believe that, “probably just some ploy at manipulating you to be their weapon. Humans do that”, shrugging, “not that Walker wouldn’t do the same”.

Danny blinks, _‘oh Zone, he’s, like, a bit of a ghost supremacist or something’_

Bullet keeps going with a smirk, “I’d say this-”, gesturing loosely at Danny, “-works better than you being the same as a simple Core, like everyone thought you’d be”.

Danny scrunches his eyebrows, “‘everyone’?”. _‘Uh-oh. Why do I get the feeling other ghosts are going to come after us, you technically’_. Core whining and wiggling in agreement a little.

Bullet nods, “we all felt you form. Walker’s hardly the only one who stumbled over wondering what having you could do”. 

_‘Well fuck’._

_‘ **Bad** ’_

_‘Definitely. I guess I’m learning how to fight then’_

Bullet grins, “I’ve wondered myself. Now I know we got off to a rather rocky start, but certainly, you’d prefer to be in the Realm; with the rest of yourself. I could provide that and some loyal lackies”.

Danny glares a little, thinking very sarcastically ‘that’s not suspicious at all’. Then tilting his head, which Bullet probably thinks is the Zone Core considering his ‘offer’. _‘Would you actually prefer being in the Zone? With me obviously, being one and all’_

His Core makes a wavering trill, ‘ _ **unsure**_ ’, speaking up again after a beat, _‘Here homes’ home. Home want here. Want same’_

_‘That is oddly touching buddy. And yeah, no clue how I’d adjust to living **in another freaking dimension**. But if you, like, want to visit, I’m down’_. Getting humming in response.

Bullet interrupts Danny’s mental conversation, “what’s your actual name, if you have one”. 

His Core instantly speaking up with **_‘Am. Little Star’_**

Danny resists shaking his head, _‘no, he -and possibly other ghosts- are going to be calling **me** -or us combined as a unit, I guess- whatever name. So this is more like, what is **our** name’_

**_‘Danam, ?’_ **

_‘...no. Full stop, that is a truly terrible idea’_ , continuing over the slightly annoyed and insulted whine and bass-boosting in his head, _‘baby. Ghosts typically have names relating or describing Obsessions or an aspect of who they are. That or their living name, or something close. You’re literally the Core of the Ghost Zone and my friends are probably calling me ‘the Ghost’ now. So something spooky.... and tricky’,_ seriously having to resist smirking, _‘could go with Gauche and be a real asshole. Or- hey, whatcha think of Phantom. Means ghost and freaking rhymes with my last name’._

His Core crackles a bit loudly at that, resulting in Danny having to seriously force himself by biting his to tongue to not laugh when said crackling results in Bullet commenting, “I doubt I can make that sound”. 

Danny winds up chuckling anyways, “it’s Phantom. And-”. Danny gets interrupted by more icy mist leaving his mouth, Core blurting out **_‘COMING’_** , and an eyeball with cloak just suddenly phasing through the floor. Both him and Bullet go wide-eyed, Bullet seems more shocked but that’s largely because not a lot can actually startle Danny. Which is why Danny only blinks when Bullet practically hisses, “Observant”. 

_‘I’ve heard of these guys before. This is **Bad**. Like, capital b **Bad**. They’re, like, **the** Zone cops. And judges. And hire assassins, according to gossip anyway. Also supposedly, like, some of the strongest ghosts there are. My folks don’t believe they actually exist’,_ Danny’s mental tone becomes kind of mocking, _‘because if overarching law and government exists, then ghosts wouldn’t be such chaotic lawless creatures’_

**_‘Powerful. Can feel’_ **

Danny squints, their ecto-field was brighter and larger. And now that he’s thinking about it, he can ‘feel’ it too. Like, the tingle or pulsing coming off the ghosts, and it’s way stronger from the eyeball. _‘See this seems like a good time to decide fleeing is an option and picking it’_

**_‘NO. Want where belong’_ **

_‘Little Star. Buddy. Pal. Dude. I am **not** doing **shit** with the freakin’ Observant. I may not have any sense of self-preservation, but I’m not an idiot. If I had some genuine fighting experience and skill, then maybe. But I don’t, and I’d rather not die today... or tomorrow for that matter’._ His Core makes a very annoyed and disapproving whine but doesn’t attempt at stopping him from backing away slowly when Bullet books it through the ceiling. 

Danny’s not really surprised -it’s just his luck honestly- when the Observant address him just as he gets to the front door. “We know what you are, mortal with the Realms Core”.

Danny chuckles very awkwardly, “well then, this is awkward”, while phasing through the door because he’s not going to just give up on the fleeing thing. 

He’s also not surprised the Observant just floats after, at least they have the decency to copy him in turning invisible. “We care not what fabrications you told anyone. However, you must die. For the good of the Realms”.

Danny smiles wide enough to be a bit painful and speaks with very fake cheeriness, “oh, that’s nice”, shaking his head slightly, “not gonna happen though. Ha ha”. 

While his Core vibrates very aggressively and makes deep growling bass-boosted sounds ** _‘NO! MINE! MEAN!’_** and zaps energy out at the ghost. Who just easily avoids it; making Danny chuckle awkwardly. 

Danny turns in the air and starts to bolt off, because fuck this, only to nearly slam face-first into a different ghost in a cloak with a scythe; obviously instantly backing up, because if that’s not an assassin then he doesn’t know what is. His Core attempting to zap this guy too, which of course fails spectacularly again. 

Danny catches the Observant putting up a finger as they speak, “we are not ones to interfere ourselves”. While the scythe-wielding ghosts spins it a little with a slight grin. 

_‘Well that’s one way to confirm the whole assassin thing’._

**_‘Okay. Can flee’_ **

_‘Glad we agree. Holy shit’_

Danny is not gonna complain about his Core zapping more green lightning at the two, even if It hits precisely nothing except trees and pavement. Also not complaining or fight his Core jerking his hands up, palms out, and does some weird thingy that feels like the skin on his palms is pulling on hundreds of taught threads that are pierced into the bones. It’s not a pleasant feeling, and the harsh vibrating his Core’s doing and spreading through the limbs doesn’t help. Danny turns his head to his palms and blinks, seeing the air pulse for a second and feel tingly, before a freaking _ghost portal just swirls open in front of his palms_. _‘HOLY SHIT! YOU CAN MAKE PORTALS! HOLY FUCK’_

Snapping his head to the ghost that was his would-be murderer and blurting, “fuck this shit, I’m out”, and zipping through the portal. 

Danny looks behind himself and is more than a little happy the portal closed after them. Instantly laughing very hard, Core joining with crackles and bubbles after a bit. 


	9. Zone Bound Like A Ghostly Basset Hound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny needs to get a little more connected with his Zone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ectober 2020 Day 16: Trip

The next thing Danny does is look around. Actually _going into the Zone_ wasn’t really something people did. Considering the very air and literally _all_ surfaces were pure ectoplasm, it wasn’t exactly safe for human travel. 

Glancing around, not surprised at all the green just everywhere. _‘Huh, very green’,_ patting his chest, _‘thanks a shit ton for that save by the way. We should, uh, not stay in one place though. And this place is super not human safe, so if my body starts doing not fun stuff, you need to get me outta here’._

Getting a loud whine, ‘ ** _deadly_**?’ and soft accepting hum in response. 

Danny nods his head and starts looking around for a landmass. Keeping the invisibility up and floating slowly once he spots one. _‘For a **normal** human, yeah. But if my idea that you can make me able to handle ectoplasm is right, then I should be totally fine. The Zone, here, is pure ectoplasm. Not as strong as what’s in ghosts or what you’re made outta, but still’._ Swallowing and whispering, “normally any humans who come here wear full-body anti-ecto hazmat suits. Like what my parents’ wear all the time”, lifting up and glancing at a bare-skinned hand, “I should really be in a ton of pain right now. Like what I got from your green tendrils. Well, little less immediate than that”. His Core giving a worried whine; Danny just pats his chest comfortingly. 

It doesn’t take long to make it to the little island, Danny poking the ground cautiously with his shoe before shrugging and landing on it. _‘If my folks ever find out about this, they’re gonna make me burn my clothing. What with how insanely contaminated they are by now’._ Earning some bubbling from his Core. 

It also doesn’t take much wandering to figure out that the island is not only small but most likely uninhabited. Meaning probably safe to crash on for a bit. Also noticing in this time, that his body feels kinda good, which is weird. It was kinda like he was getting a very faint full body massage with nice oils or something. Feeling it even on and in his bones, muscles, and Core. Though he’s not surprised by the constant slight tingle of sensing all the ectoplasmic energy around. Vaguely noting how it was stronger near things that logically had more ectoplasm. 

Sighing and sitting to lean against a tree, decidedly one that felt lower in ectoplasm, grumbling a little, “Sam and Tuck are probably worried by now”, and flipping out his phone. Groaning at it, “no bars or internet, figures”. _‘Any clue what’s up with my body feeling nice? Is it just cause this place is technically part of you?’._

**_‘Only change absorbing ectoplasm’_ **

_‘Heh, must be on a pretty massive level then. Still weird’_. Leaning his head back against the bark and closing his eyes. Guess he shouldn’t be surprised that his body liked absorbing ectoplasm, probably feeding his Core in a way. Yawning a little. _‘Hey, I think I’m gonna sleep for a bit. Make sure to wake me and feel free to yank me around if a ghost approaches us, okay?’._ Grinning to himself over the soft hum. 

* * *

Danny’s not even slightly surprised to get awoken very suddenly. He somehow doubts those ghosts would just _give up_. Would make his life easier though.

**_‘COMING. Eye child’_ **

_‘Alright. Okay. Not good’_. Turning to fly off he’s also not surprised to nearly crash right into the scythe-wielding ghost that just appeared out of nowhere; who also looks to have a stick now, with something that looks like a ‘CW’ and a tiny clock on it. Not even getting a chance to back off as his body just freezes in the air. 

“I’m afraid the Observants believe you a threat to the Realms, Daniel. And the future seen hardly disagrees”. A mirror shaped something forming next to the ghost and flashing through scenes of destruction. 

_‘I- what?- that won’t?’._ His Core just making some strange warbling static thing that he can’t make sense of. The ghost doesn’t hesitate or explain further before ramming the scythe through his back, it feels like all his veins are immediately on fire and he can both see and feel green electricity arching over his skin. Watching his Core get physically shoved out of his chest, blue and white tendrils tense and clearly trying to hold on to him before fizzing and snapping off. 

A verifiable horde of Observants appears, one moving to slide the Core off the top on the scythe and cup it, while Danny collapses onto the small island; wheezing and a pool of blood forming around his chest from the hole speared through it. _‘Ah shit... this is so.. not how I saw this coming’_. Sure he never expected to live very long but graduating would have been nice. Though he can appreciate the comedic value of being offed by a scythe of all things. Wielded by a ghost. That’s got to count for some kind of jokester prestige. Right? And hey, he will probably be the first human to actually die here. Oh he’s so totally going to wind up a ghost. 

Man, Sam and Tuck are going to be _pissed_. 

* * *

The scythe-wielding ghost quirks an eyebrow and gives an almost inaudible pleased hum while the Observants back off as the Zone Core immediately starts vibrating wildly, making horribly unpleasant static and growling sounds; as if an entire pack of hellhounds were nipping at their heels over the backdrop of a static tv screen turned well past a-hundred. All of them covering their ears and hunching over, the Observants pupils widening when the Zone Core discharges massive amounts of green electricity in every direction. 

“WHAT!”, none getting to say more than that as they all start getting speared and shocked, causing massive amounts of damage. The scythe-wielding ghost the only one successfully avoiding it, though the ectoplasmic air everywhere is becoming charged itself and is something utterly unavoidable. 

“Well, this changes things”. They poof and appear looming over Danny, who’s still alive enough to glance at them, “it seems you are quite the unusual one. You’ve taken a path with less than one percent possibility of happening. The Observants, they believe only they, beings inherently incapable of biases, can control the Core without becoming a danger to the Realms. Without becoming power-hungry. The logical would find that quite a narrow-minded view to hold. Would it not be preferred to have one who cares? One who protects, guides, and _teaches_. Over ones who only watch?”, the ghost grins as some rocks get blown apart by a zap of lightning, “I think we may be of use to each other. To answer some of your questions, I, am ClockWork”, and poofs away, reappearing by the Zone Core; while Danny’s barely consciously widens his eyes. _‘A myth...’._ Then passes out, his chest falling and not rising back up. 

Many of the Observants glance at each other as the fabric of the Zone begins to shake. Glancing and seeming to squint at ClockWork’s sudden movement. One speaking up, “what are you doing. You’ve fulfilled your duties, now leave”, their voice sounding full of power and command. 

“I’m afraid that is not what this one wants”, and raises their scythe over their head, the blade pointed away from the Zone Core. 

“ClockWork!-”, the Observants get cut off by loud static drowning everything out and ClockWork slamming the side of the scythe on the Zone Core, sending It shooting down back towards Danny. It immediately ceasing the lightning and static, exploding with tendrils that squirm over the entire island trilling loudly all the while. ClockWork floating to be between them and the horde of Observants, a slight smirk across their face. 

The Observants look from the Zone Core to ClockWork, one holding up a finger, “this is your fault now. What happens, _you_ are responsible for it. And you will take the fall for it”. 

“Yes. And you will merely observe. Nothing more. As you were meant to. Pariah is gone, and you are hardly replacements”. 

“You plan to-”, the Observant not getting to finish as chunks of the island seemingly get pelted at them. Effectively forcing them to flee; unable to tolerate any more damage. As while they were something of a force to be reckoned with as a group, individually they were far less durable than ones like ClockWork. 

Danny hacks and coughs, jerking to curl up in on himself and feeling like his ribs were being squeezed by a very aggressive anaconda. Groaning over the other feeling like lead was attempting to move through his veins. There’s no way he could even lift up his arm right now and he’s got no clue what the vaguely squirming blanket thing over him is. Blinking, he can barely even attempt at actually thinking words. Mostly it was just ‘ _ow_ ’ and ‘ _ah_ ’ and ‘ _fuck_ ’. 

Sucking in a breath as that almost gnawing emptiness in his chest gets practically slammed with weight and fullness and energy and power. It’s so much that he almost passes out again from it. 

“You need to calm down, you’re overwhelming the poor boy”. Danny blinks over the vaguely familiar voice, though he can’t even begin to place it at the moment. But the squirming does slow down a little and the pressure in him feels less all-consuming. Wheezing a bit and actually managing to push himself up with his one arm after a bit, blinking at the purple cloaked smirking ghost before cringing and glancing to his chest. _‘Right. Core. Little...Star?’._

Flinching a little at the very loud, **_‘HOME HOME HOME HOME HOME’_** that’s so intense it’s almost gibberish to him. 

The cloaked ghost hums, “the Zone Core has never been exposed properly to the Zone. As such It seems quite inexperienced in how to manage so much raw energy without the body of a mortal to filter it. And It expelled a very large amount of Its latent energy attacking us”, the ghost grins, “now I could take you two somewhere to expel the raw It doesn’t yet know to handle and gather ecto-energy that is more... suitable for your living body”. 

Danny wheezes a little, muscles spasming, and feeling the vibration of invisibility coming and going; pretty sure neither him nor his Core is really in control of that. “So... you’re, _not_ going, to off, me?”. The ghost -ClockWork, right? And wasn’t that a mind fuck they were supposed to be some kind of ghost god myth- nods before changing to look like a toddler and floating close to his face, “far be it for me to deny the Zone Core Its _cores_ desires. To see It doing as It was, It would have depleted Itself for the one It cares for. Risk everything for the one It calls home. And I find it unlikely that you would do any differently. So, do you not deserve a chance?”. 

Danny just blinks, this was probably the most positive interaction with a ghost he could imagine. A bunch of ghosts just had a spat over him. Oddly, he wonders what his parents would say. How they would try to explain this. Regardless he nods gently, fighting against the stiff tautness in his neck. The now adult ghost picking him up and practically cradling him. _‘No one is ever going to believe this. Ever. **Ever**. Literally the only ghost I could run into more extreme than this is freaking Pariah or a **ViralHelm**. But... I’d be super super dead’. _

**_‘No. Never. STAY’_ **

_‘Little guy, I have zero intention of being around either of them. Or dying honestly. Ow’._

ClockWork chuckles very faintly, Danny decides against asking. The fact that every inch of him still feels like hot garbage only encourages that. Though he can’t help but whisper in awe, “woah”, when he sees where they’re going. A massive flowering plain covered in flowers of all different kinds and shapes, with glows that somehow shimmered, a red aroma wafting off the place and smelling like sweet succulent heaven. Him sniffing and leaning forward out of ClockWork’s arms, though wincing a bit at his Core vibrating and seemingly trying to pull him forward. Everything around It felt so _raw_. It honestly probably _was raw_. _‘Please stop pulling. You’re hurting me’_

**_‘Want. HUNGRY’_ **

_‘I know. But I feel, like you’re gonna pull, yourself out of me’._ That seemed to be enough to get the little guy to calm down some. Probably really heavily against the idea of being separated at the moment. Though to be fair, he was too. He still leans forward a bit more though, pointedly ignoring the tendrils hanging out over his skin; at least it didn’t hurt. He’s just going to assume they weren’t sinking in because of the full of raw ecto thing. Did his Core just not know how to process the Zones energy yet? Or was it because of him? 

He mentally cuts himself off as ClockWork sets him down on the ground, kneeling and hands moving practically not of their own accord and jerky to cup one of the little flowers. ClockWork speaking as he shoves the flower in his mouth, it exploding like a fruit gusher and making him outright moan from the sweet thick white chocolate flavour and texture. “This is the Defted Plains. The epicentre of the Zone, if any place is the true point of origin for the Zone Core it is here, and the ectoplasm here is ultimately what the purified Zone core ectoplasm was pulled from to make the Zone Core”. Danny’s barely paying any attention as he rips up more of the flowers, stuffing them into his mouth more than a little eagerly. Though noting the tendrils around him are lifted off him a bit and stabbing into the ground; more flowers growing, uncurling, and popping open around them. And the pulsing going on in his chest is more than a little weird. 

Side-eyeing ClockWork as they shift to a child and move to sit on his shoulder, obviously uncaring about him practically tearing up the ground and flowers like a starved animal, “while this may be replenishing the Zone Core, it is doing little for your own healing. The Zone Core will have to do that for you Itself. And I’m afraid there are certain _complications_ that Maddie and Jack failed to grasp”, Danny can feel the back of that scythe pressing up against his back, “that a Core needs to be _connected_ to provide support”, then pushing him at the ground; him immediately slipping through the ground like it was butter. 

Danny can’t see anything other than himself and he appears to be glowing, and the tendrils, he can’t so much as twitch a finger but watching the tendrils shoot off him and seem to connect to something somewhere and becoming taut sticking out of him from his chest. _‘Alright. Okay, somethings going on here and I have no idea what. But... are you okay?’_ , feeling like all of his insides are squishing themselves or something, _‘oh Zone I’m **hungry** ’,_ he’d really like to be able to swallow or anything right now, _‘this is your **hunger** I’m feeling right?’._

**_‘Some much-everything-is. Home fine. Here happy-mine’_**. Danny’s skin twitching violently is the closest he can get to shuddering from the harsh vibrations and nuzzling; hearing deep humming bordering on a purr that sounds like it’s coming from everywhere. 

Danny doesn’t even get a chance to try responding to that, he’s pretty sure his Core is having a fair few issues ‘thinking’, as he feels like a video game cartridge that just got clicked into place and eyes mentally widening at the blackness being overtaken by being able to just see _everything_ seemingly expanding out from him. He can see the edges of the Zone like he’s there but also not? It makes zero sense, but whatever that’s just his life, existence, whatever, now. 

Then nearly vomiting from everything just seemingly snapping back inside him and rolling over on the little flowering plain area. The Defted Plains ClockWork called it? Grinning slightly more than a little aware of the thick heavy wetness in his limbs again. He’d gotten used to it but still, blinking at still being able to see, like, everything but it was like colourful static spiky wavy energy and was really in the background to what he’s _actually seeing_ around him. _‘Mind trip holy shit. A druggie would be jealous of this, damn. At least I can tell what’s actually in front of me’_ closing his eyes, he could still see the static energy stuff behind his eyelids, _‘fuck. This is a lot’_. Sighing a little at the soft apologetic sounding whine. _‘It’s fine it’s fine. Just gotta give me a bit to deal’,_ swallowing, _‘so this is you huh? All of you? The Zone?’_

_**‘Mine. Yes. Part of. Home more mine. Part home too’.** _

_‘Alright cool. Guess the Zone’s part of me more than just having its Core. I can just **feel** the existential crisis coming’._ That gets him some bubbling laughter, which makes him smile even if he still feels tired and so doesn’t want to get up. 

Danny twitches a jerk at the sound of ClockWork’s voice startling him, “I would encourage you to head home. Before any curious ghosts come to check you out. You, or more so the Zone Core, is quite a big deal after all”.

Danny sighs and slowly pushes himself up, that action alone making him feel exhausted, “ghosts coming after me is going to be common bullshit for me now, isn’t it? And do I seriously seem like I’ve got the energy to be going anywhere?”, oh he can _feel_ the sarcasm dripping off that. 

ClockWork smirks, “that would be telling, wouldn’t it”, floating closer and jabbing his chest with their staff, “ _you_ may find yourself tired but the Zone Core hardly is, Daniel. Or should I call you Phantom?”, grinning, “no I think I won’t”. 

Danny actually chuckles over that, he thinks he kinda likes this ghost. Looking down to his chest, “well? Feel like doing the portal shit again? You’re gonna have to puppet me around though, ‘cause my muscles feel like rubber”. He thinks ClockWork grins a little at that but when he looks they’re gone. His Core does bubble and crackle a little though, even if there’s a slight whine. Obviously little guy felt bad for all this, which yeah, he fucking died for a while there he’s pretty sure. Regardless he doesn’t fall over when his arms jerk out and the taut threads stabbing his bones feeling starts up, a portal swirling open; his body seemingly flinging itself through it. Landing on the sidewalk in front of his house, just outside of the shield around FentonWorks. Which he absolutely groans over. It’s also dark out. Which, fuck him, everyone was probably freaking out about his sudden MIA status.

Hence why he’s totally unsurprised when his parents and friends all run out to him. _‘Ah they probably thought my parents did some experiment thing on me or that I maybe got abducted by the G.I.W.. Nice to know they’d come running to my defence without hesitation’._ His Core softly humming a happy agreement. 


	10. Time To Score For The Cannibal Core

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny’s gonna need a bit to recover and recover his energy. Energy that is very ectoplasm focused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ectober 2020 Day 20: Energy

“DANNY!!!”. Danny winces a bit on the ground from the volume of that, but he isn’t about to bitch about his heightened hearing anywhere near his parents. 

Sam and Tucker immediately grabbing his arms while going a little wide-eyed over the horrid state of his shirt. He probably looks like he got mauled, which he kinda had. By a _scythe_. Which was still hilarious. Danny mumbling an, “I'm fine”. Which of course gets two, “bullshit”’s in response. While his parents kneel next to him, Maddie hovering her fingers over him cautiously for a beat before pulling his shirt. Everyone, including Danny, sighing over the complete lack of injuries. _‘Massive thank you for your crazy ass healing, little buddy’._

**_‘Home’s home. Safe’_ **

_‘Yeah. Safe.... hopefully’._ He absolutely appreciates his friends pulling him to sit up but his parents just look like they’re studying him. Jack looking in the direction where he had flopped out of a portal, “he came through a portal...”, then giving Maddie a look. 

Sam and Tucker both scowl at his parents, Tucker moving to grab his legs and the two of them carry him off inside his house and to the couch. His parents don’t even bother following in a surprise to no one. 

Sam grumbling, “there are times I truly hate your parents”. Danny just hums at that while Tucker pokes his shirt where there’s _not_ bloodstains, “why’s your shirt look like you attempted to send it through a meat grinder?”. 

Danny chuckles slightly emptily, “oh I don’t know. I just got impaled by a scythe, it’s no big deal. And shot a couple times, no problems here. Little mild abduction happened too, but we’re all good. I know what it’s like die now though, so that’s something to stamp out on the injury bingo card”. Both of them glare at him and his Core gives him a seriously unimpressed bass-boosted whine. Neither get to ask what the Hell as his parents come back in. Maddie walking over and kneeling to be on eye-level. _‘At least she’s **attempting** to seem gentle and genuinely worried about me and me alone’_. “Sweetie, feel like telling us what happened? Were you in the Ghost Zone?”. 

_‘Okay, to lie or not to lie... that is the question. Dad totally saw the portal though. There’s so not another explanation for that and saying I don’t remember is, like, a **super** bad idea’._ Having to make a point not to roll his eyes over Little Star sending a sad whine and comforting nuzzle. ‘ _Oh, it’s fine’._

Danny shrugs slightly, very pointedly ignoring the _everything_ he’s also seeing at the moment; it was oddly already seeming like easily ignorable background noise or something. Not that he doesn’t totally appreciate the easy adjustment, “ah yeah. Ghostly abduction-”, he doesn’t even get to continue as his dad bursts out. “WHAT!?! It didn’t do anything to the Zone Core or try to take it!?!”, lifting up a blaster, “where is It and when can I shoot It!”. 

_‘Of course that’s what they care about’_ , expected but it still stung a little. His Core obviously agreeing with definitely audible bass-boosted sounds. That makes Maddie give a relieved sigh though, “It’s still making sounds, Jack dear. I think It’s fine”. Danny just scowls over being treated like he’s not even here. Maddie standing up and looking down at him, “you should have called us”. 

Jack adding in, “was it that new ghost we spotted!?”, and cocks the blaster a little. 

Danny would seriously prefer to be in his bed than on the couch, but of course his parents wanted to keep an eye on him. For experimentation purposes probably or just making sure he -his Core, the Zone Core- didn’t destabilise. Rolling his eyes, “it’s not my fault some psycho ghost shoved me through a portal. But no it wasn’t that ghost, dad”. No way is he telling them he can make portals now, they’d abuse that in a heartbeat. Or try to. Not like Danny would let them. 

Grinning a little when he gets smacked in the face by a t-shirt, which is definitely Tucker’s fault.

_**‘To protect’** _

_‘Yeah. That. Those two using me, us, as some kind of screwed up all-access pass to the Zone is super not cool. They’ll be Zone damned before I let them use me like that’._ Forcing himself not to smile at the nuzzling and faint hum. While he pushes himself to sit up and goes about getting out of his ruined shirt, pulling the new one over his head. 

Only kinda listening as Maddie speaks, “you need to be more careful, Danny. Not only were you completely unprotected but who knows what could have happened to the Core in there”. Danny sighs as she keeps going, “I’m this close to making your wear a hazmat full-time”. Which just makes Danny groan tiredly as she snatched away his shirt and inspects it, handing it off to Jack who runs down to the lab. Hooray, he was providing samples. 

Maddie looks back to him, “do you have any idea _why_ you were targeted?”. Sam rounding on her, “he doesn’t need to explain to you. He needs to rest”. Tucker just nods strongly. 

Maddie rolls her eyes disappointedly at the teens and sounds like she’s talking to naive children, “we need to know. Who knows what would happen if ghosts got their filthy ectoplasmic hands on the Zone Core. The energy in It is extremely powerful and pure, a ghost could raise the world into oblivion with that kind of power. Danny obviously knows better than to use such disgusting things but any ghost would eagerly try to take advantage of him if they found out what he has”, huffing, “ _that’s_ why It was supposed to be and _stay_ in proper containment”. 

Sam’s scowl deepens, “so what? Danny clearly handled himself just damn fine. You breathing down his neck doesn’t help anything”.

“He could have useful information!”.

“Is that all you care about?!?”. 

Maddie looks appalled, “of course not! He’s my son!”.

Sam snapping, “sure doesn’t sound like it”, and turns her back on Maddie. Her and Tucker moving to yank him up off the couch and drag him up to his room. Which he is totally cool with. _‘My room would be seriously so much nicer’_. His Core giving a soft hum in agreement. He does pause a bit, signally to his friends to hold up for a bit. _‘I should at least ease their worries, because they are kinda founded. Those ghosts **did** show up to steal Little Star after all. Plus... if I’m never ‘forthcoming’ with information they’re gonna get suspicious of me’._

_**‘Let. Mean’** _

_‘Yeah but they’ll be worse if they think they can’t trust me. Plus maybe if they realise they don’t know everything they’ll maybe possibly be open to new ideas. Doubtful but it’s worth a shot’_ only getting annoyed bass-boosting in return. 

“Hey”. Getting his mom's attention while he can feel his friends giving him ‘I hope you know what you’re doing’ looks. “The Core did that zapping thing so no ghosts actually got close”.

She nods and hums, looking genuinely relieved which was nice to see even if it might not be over his well-being entirely or at all. “While I’m happy, that might have drained It, Danny”.

Danny deciding to stick with the sorta honesty train, “yeah it did. Kinda wound up in the centre of the Zone place and ‘restocked’ or whatever”. She just blinks, hums, and runs off down to the lab. The three teens all rolling their eyes and helping drag Danny up to bed. 

He just lets them toss him down in bed with a tired groan. Tucker snorting, “wow you sound impressively tired. Coffee?”.

Danny grumbles into the blankets, “probably a bad idea. The _freaking god of time_ -yes we meet- said Am needs to fix me up”. 

“From... the impaling?”. Danny and his Core hum a yes. While Sam scowls at the now-closed door, “Zone do they have to be so, so, so self-centred! Their kid gets abducted and all they care about is their damn science project!”. 

Danny lifts up a finger, “technically their son is the science project“. She chucks a slipper at him, “that is not what I mean and you know it!”.

Tucker pats Danny’s back, “so, god of time huh? Nice”. Danny smirks and gives him a weak high-five, “they're kinda the one that went scythe happy on me though, also saved my life though so I’m getting some serious mixed messages. But hey, the Observants wanted me super dead so I’ll take it”. 

He can feel his two friends staring at him. Tucker falling on his ass on the ground laughing, “your first genuine ghostly encounter and it’s the freaking Observants and a mythological _god_. Your luck man!”. 

Danny lifts his hand up to give a thumbs up, “and turns out the Zone Core needs to actually be connected to the Zone to do the whole supporting it thing. So that happened. I can see literally the entire Zone right now”, all of them chuckle at the sad whining, “hey now, it’s weird but I’m good. I don’t feel like I’m on acid anymore”. 

Tucker actually sounds worried now, “maybe you should stay home for a while”. Sam scowls, “oh like his ‘parents’ won’t force him purely for observation. Have to make sure their precious little project is perfectly fine and dandy”, everyone can feel the sarcasm dripping off her words there. 

**_‘Agree. Mean. No like’_**

_‘You’re not wrong. But you can’t help who your parents are. Who made you. And technically they’re **your** parents too. They made you too’_. He ignores the slight bass-boosted sound and yawns tiredly. 

Sam sighing and sounding like she just kicked Tucker, “obviously we should let you rest, but is Am tired too? Considering what you told your... ‘mom’”. 

Tucker perks up, “oh yeah, you said It replenished. You actively absorbing ectoplasm now? Like a sponge”. 

Danny chuckles, that probably would have been preferable to being sorta force-fed even if it felt stupid good. “Let's just say putting ghost hunger on that test might have bit me in the ass”, he can easily hear Sam gag so he adds on, “only ghost flowers though, Sam”. His Core making a low content purr, obviously having no problem with Its enjoyable meal. 

Sam absolutely notices, “why are you purring”, but sounds like she doesn’t actually want to know. 

“Oh because it is positively _delicious_ ”. _‘Purr more just to gross her out’_ and smirking to himself over his Core doing just that, though with added crackling. 

“You disgust me”. 

“I would ask to try but, you know, that would melt my stomach lining”. 

“And you disgust me even more”. 

Danny just laughs, passing out minutes later. 

* * *

Is Danny surprised he slept for an entire day? No, not at all. Sure he had been stirred awake a couple times from coldness when his parents had come to check on him and had had a few groggy tired conversations. But for the most part, he slept like a rock. Though the entire time he was sleeping it was like he was having an out-of-body experience and floating around the Zone, his mind mentally focusing in on different spots and places. It was cool but also the weirdest ‘dreams’ ever. 

He wouldn’t mind sleeping more though because even now he was still absolutely exhausted, which fine made sense. He appreciates being able to feel Little Star feeding him energy, definitely not enough though. But hey, he got the rest of the week off -which was honestly only one day but whatever- for ‘getting caught up in a ghost attack’. Downside? His parents hovering like they’re watching a Petri dish that’s not doing its shit fast enough. At least that’s what he remembers from his half-awake conversations. He’s also pretty sure his mom ran an energy scanner on him, which made sense considering he had told her about depleting his Core’s energy and just being in the Zone, in general, warranted getting scanned. He’s pretty sure he caught her muttering about him basically having an endless tolerance for ectoplasm. ‘ _Which I had kinda figured. Told ya you didn’t need to worry about me getting ecto in my system’_

**_‘Good safe. Need rest’_ **

_‘Heh. You mother henning me is honestly hilarious. Humans can’t sleep endlessly though. Don’t think I even **can** sleep anymore for now’_

**_‘Human, ???. Sleep, ???’_ **

Danny can’t help chuckling at that, muttering tiredly into his blankets and scrunching them up into his face, “my humanness and human things will likely always be strange for you. Though I’m guessing my tiredness is entirely not a human thing. Low in ecto”. Rolling onto his back and bunching up his pillow some as his Core hums and pulses in that comforting way. Which yeah, he’s come to quite enjoy. Sighing in content tiredness, “yeah. So sleeping honestly probably isn’t helping me much”.

_**‘Help yes. Absorb ectoplasm easier’** _

“Huh”. _‘Guess I should try sleeping more then. Don’t go gettin’ your hopes up’._ Chuckling a little over getting a bit of bubbling. 

Not ten minutes later Maddie knocks and comes in, smiling when she spots he’s already awake, “still feeling tired, sweetie?”. 

Danny nods, “yeah”, and yawns a little just because.

Maddie holds up a solid plastic cup with a lid and straw, “whipped up something that might help”. Maddie walks it over and Danny takes it gingerly. Danny guesses by the way she stands and watches him that she’s pretty well just testing something on him. Looking at the cup, which is obviously intentionally set up so he can’t see what’s inside, _‘hey, if this is purified Zone core ectoplasm -Defted ectoplasm?- you’ve got to not freak out on me. I don’t want her seeing me behave like that. Okay?’_. Danny brings the straw to his mouth as the whine in his head changes to a slight accepting hum. 

Taking a sip and yup, Defted ectoplasm. Opening and closing his mouth a few times and pulling away from the drink to make it seem like he’s never tasted this before, “uh, that’s a lot of lemon, lime, and... white chocolate?”; the lemon and lime telling him there was just plain ol’ regular ectoplasm mixed in. Weird choice but damnit, now he was hungry; and maybe this would actually help. His parents weren’t morons, they did have good ghost-related ideas. 

_‘ **CONSUME** ’_

_‘I know, I know. Wait for her to leave’_

Maddie nods, and Danny doesn’t miss the slight smile, her speaking as she heads to his door, “well you should probably drink all of it. Feel better okay?”. Danny nods as she closes the door. 

Waiting only a beat before physically tearing off the cup lid, licking his tongue around the straw and inside of the lid, before putting that to the side. He can feel Little Star trying to jerk his hands to his mouth, _‘slow slow, don’t wanna, spill. Want all, right’_

_‘ **YES** ’_

Danny smirks as he bends the cup slightly to angle it so that he can get as much into his mouth at once. Gulping it down greedily and moaning slightly, Core practically singing with purrs and hums. Elongating his tongue so he can lick over every inch, before putting the cup on the side table; screwing back on the lid with a sigh. Patting at his chest, ‘ _better_?’. Getting happy humming in return.

Licking his lips and turning back over, sigh another small moan and snuggling into the blankets again; falling back asleep pretty quickly. 

* * *

The next time he wakes up, Sam and Tucker are chilling in his room playing on their handhelds in their beanie bags. Him watching them for a bit before deciding to chuck a pillow at Tucker, not Sam because he has some sense. Least he felt genuinely less tired now. 

“What the! Ack!”, Tucker snaps his head to him, abandoning the game on the floor, “Danny dude! You’re up!”. 

Sam smacks him as she gets up too, “quiet before you get his parents up here”. Tucker just rolls his eyes as they sit on his bed. Sam points at the cup on the side table, “your mom dropped that off”.

Tucker chuckles, “with a warning for us not to touch it, ominous as fuck”. 

Danny chuckles, Core bubbling too, “well it’s pure purified ecto so that's fair. I don’t think she’s realised I know that though”. Sam immediately sends the cup a scowl, Tucker meanwhile nudges him to drink it. Which honestly just makes him chuckle more and go from just bubbling to crackling. Which Sam smacks him lightly for, “stop that”, pointing at Tucker, “and you, don’t encourage him. If he needs it that’s one thing, though he absolutely should be asking where it’s coming from. Because so help me if they are just bleeding some ghost dry-”.

Danny feels the need to butt in with that because no way would he drink that then, “Sam it’s mostly the stuff from the centre of the Zone, which is at most from some plants. The rest is absolutely just sapped from the portal. I would know if there was a ghost here, which right never got a chance to mention I can sense ghosts and how strong they are”. 

Tucker claps him on the shoulder, “Zone damn that’s awesome man. Guessing that’s why your breath went all visible icy mist”. 

“Bingo”. 

Sam rolls her eyes though smiling, “alright that’s okay, sorta, then”. 

_**‘Good. Ego one no mad. Drink now?’**_ Making Danny snort and roll his eyes.

“Hey, I said it was alright”.

Danny blinks at Sam and laughs a little, “no. Not rolling my eyes at you”, and laughs a bit more while he pushes himself to sit up. Tucker finger-guns at him, “half a conversation”. This time Danny is absolutely rolling his eyes at his friends as he grabs up his cup, ripping off the lid and looking down. _‘Yup. More ecto’_

**_‘Want, ?’_ **The unsureness of that makes him chuckle a little, little guy was being considerate. Or as much as It could be past the instincts, though him feeling less tired probably helped in that regard. Weird that he was awake enough to actually be able to tell that that heavy wetness in his veins that he’s become used to was ‘lighter’ than normal. _‘Well that’s one way to know I’m low, huh’_. 

_‘ **Want** ’_

_‘Geez someone’s pushy’._

“Do we want to know why you’re just staring at it?”. Danny jumps a little from Sam’s voice, spilling some on his hand, “oh damn”. Both of them lean away slightly but laugh a bit at him licking his hand off, him muttering, “damn”, again and humming to cover up the whole moaning thing; he does absently note the fizzing to his eyes though as he effectively dumps the cup in his mouth. _‘Well that’s new, guessing I was too, ah, low before to be all, eye sparky’_ getting some agreeing humming but it’s mostly pleased humming and pulsing in his chest. 

“Your eyes are all green again dude, also, ten bucks says you can’t stop drinking right now”. Danny flips him off but... doesn’t stop. Tucker immediately laughs at him. 

Danny licking off the cup and pointing at Tucker as he puts the cup to the side, “shush, nothing from Mr. Meat Sense. None of us have normal diets, at least mine is just ‘cause I’m ecto-drained from, like, so much bullshit”. 

Tucker smirks but points at him, “speaking of bullshit, so you lowkey fought an Observant? Badass man, put that on your resume”.

Danny blinks at him, “Tuck, I’m pretty sure _all of them were there_. It was like an _army_ of floating eyeball assholes in cloaks and precisely one dude with a clock fetish”. Danny squinting at an image from the Zone getting pushed into the forefront of his sight by his bubbling Core, an image of ClockWork holding a sign reading ‘clocks are quite fashionable, Daniel’ _. ‘Oh my Zone, yes I like this bastard of a ghost’_

“Wow. How did you not die”.

“I _did_. I explicitly mentioned that”.

Tucker sticks his hands out to the side, “I didn’t think you were serious”. Sam points at both Tucker then him, “to be fair, you have claimed to have been killed by a great many things not limited to: cold coffee, an old brown shoe, a hairball, the new ceiling fan-”.

Danny butts in there, “hey, the ceiling fan _did_ try to kill me”. 

She points at him, “but did it succeed? No”, putting her hands on her hips, “and Danny, you almost die at least once a year”. Everyone chuckles at his Core whining very unhappily at that, Danny giving his chest a little pat. 

Danny flops to lay back down, arms spread out, “you know, kinda surprised Little Star didn’t wake me up when y’all showed. Did every time my parents came in”. 

Tucker grins, “I think It’s saying It trusts us more than them”. 

_**‘Yes. Good homes’ home. Orange, blue, bad’** _

_‘Fair. And my friends aren’t about to stab me with a needle in my sleep or **shoot me first thing in the morning** might I add’ _

Grinning at the bubbling before looking to his friends, “yup, little guy approves of you guys”. Both of them grin stupidly at that. 

Sam starts up as her and Tucker both flop down in the bed on either side of him, “we got back our test results by the by. Almost everyone failed”.

“If you guys did I am making you sit through one of _dad’s_ lectures”.

Both of them immediately shouting, “oh Zone no! Zone be damned not happening”. 

Danny smirks and chuckles, “why I’ll have you know I damned myself a long time ago”, earning a very satisfactory round of groans, “but seriously, am I about to bleed disappointment?”.

Sam rolls her eyes enough to move her head with the motion, “with us and Valerie? Naw. Everyone else? Very. I know at least four people who only got one right”. 

Danny screws his face up _‘you've got to be kidding me’,_ “how the Zone does that happen? Half that shit was bare basic common knowledge! Most else was barely above that!”, groaning and getting crackled at, “man Lancer so won the bet”.

Tucker leans over him, “you made a bet against him? How much? Do I get anything?”. Sam leans up just to shove Tucker off the bed, “you idiot”. 

Danny chuckles, “no, just means I’m stuck teaching a class now. Screw both of you”, while Tucker crawls back onto the bed. Neither give him looks of sympathy. _‘Those bastards_ ’ his Core crackling more. _‘You bastard’._

Danny is perfectly content with the silence until Jazz busts in, without even knocking fuck you, “Danny, you need to do whatever hides that glow and turn off your eyes”.

All three jerk to sit up, “what? Why?”.

She crosses her arms looking annoyed, “G.I.W. are here, _again_. They picked up on the portal problem you caused. You better not make this a reoccurring thing, I _like_ getting to study in peace sometimes”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “hey that wasn’t my fault”. 

“Don’t care. Just be normal”. 

Danny shakes his head at the closing door. _‘Aaaaaaaaaand she’s gone. Can’t let anything take her away from her schooling, can she? Ugh whatever. Hey bud? You good to curl up? Because yeah no, hard pass on those twats finding you even slightly’_

**_‘Bad. Hide. Trick. No absorb ecto’_ **

_‘Ah well appreciate the heads up’_

Danny sighs and rubs at the twisted up feeling, grumbling, “hooray. More hiding. Fun”, and wincing from his stomach dropping or something, putting his hand over his stomach, “oh”. 

Tucker laughs, “what? Can’t handle the ecto now?”, and laughs more. Danny laughs himself, “I very much feel like a human with a stomach full of ecto yes”.

Sam scowling, “could we not?”. Making both boys snicker at her; Danny giving his chest another comforting pat letting Little Star know he’s alright. He could feel the ectoplasm rolling and bubbling, which was weird as shit. _‘I’ve eaten weirder. Rather this over the rotten underwear again’_


End file.
